St. Louis Hall of Fame Plans $20 million Downtown Building

This information has been provided by the St. Louis Hall of Fame.

"The Best Sports Hall of Fame in America" is going to be built in downtown St. Louis", says St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame Founder/President Greg Marecek as the Capital Campaign led by Founders Club Chairman Dr. Rick Lehman begins officially.

Marecek is a Webster Groves businessman and former owner of KFNS Radio and former sports editor of the Suburban Journal newspapers.

Marecek, Dr. Lehman and the Hall of Fame Board of Directors presented publicly an architectural rendering for the construction of visionary new structure to be located in downtown St. Louis.  One of the sites being considered is Union Station, which is being  renovated and revitalized by Lodging Hospitality Management.

The initial plans call for a three-story, 33,000 square foot building that is part Hall of Fame, museum, library and entertainment venue.  The building draws upon the rich architectural history of St. Louis and will be the place to come to learn about St. Louis sports, meet the legends of our city, experience one-of-a-kind interactive exhibits and see exciting new sports exhibits from around the world.

For the City of St. Louis, the Hall of Fame is a major new attraction that brings St. Louis’ esteemed history and spirit of sport onto the national stage. It will be a boon to tourism and a magnet for local groups and tours as it will constantly be hosting special events.

“In just four short years we have gone from no Hall of Fame at all to one full of inductees, a variety of annual events, the highest level of respect from the athletes and fans, and now a permanent home to display the historic artifacts, engage the fans and community and tell the compelling stories of all the truly great St. Louis athletes and teams in the best sports city in America,” said Greg Marecek. 

“I want to thank the St. Louis Blues former owners, Scottrade Center and new owner Tom Stillman, who lives in Ladue for having the foresight to give the Sports Hall of Fame an exciting home where tens of thousands of fans every year have seen our town’s great sports history.

"Also we want to announce that the Scottrade Center displays will continue to be our home through fundraising and construction, after which we would still like to maintain some displays giving us two locations of visibility.”

The team designing and building this beautiful tribute to St. Louis sports are well known.  The project is being lead by Mark Richert of CIC, the construction manager.  The design group is a partnership of JEMA in St. Louis and Populous in Kansas City. 

The partnership, lead by John Mueller, is well known across the city and the world for such projects as Edward Jones World Headquarters, Busch Stadium, the London Olympic Stadium and New Amsterdam Theater in New York.

The new St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame will showcase traveling exhibitions from the national Hall of Fames of Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League and many others.  The venue will be a “must see” destination for fans across the country, a magnet for tourism to our city and a showcase for the best sports city in America.

To find out more and how to participate, contact Greg Marecek at gmarecek@stlshof.com.