CANTON, Ohio — The Sportsbook location being built next to The Hall of Fame Village isn't finished yet, but Anne Graffice of the Hall of Fame Resort and Entertainment Company said their sports betting app is a mobile and more convenient method.
“They can pull this up and actually be betting on things all across the country," Graffice said. "It doesn’t have to just be something that they’re potentially watching here.”
Graffice said their goal is to turn the Hall of Fame museum into a year-round attraction, since she said some restaurants already have reservations for the winter.
“You might have come to enshrinement once a year," Graffice said. "But what we’ve done by way of building everything around the museum is really flatten out that one weekend, flatten out the seasonality of Ohio, by creating experiences that make the destination.”
And while fans use the app, they can try some of the restaurants at the new campus, some of which are owned by Hall of Famers and their families.
“We definitely want to bring in as many Hall of Famers into the fold as we can," Graffice said. "You know, lifting up their legacy, their businesses, their foundations. A whole host of opportunities will reside on our campus.”
And if you need to distract the kids, there’s the play action plaza. It's a way to keep people occupied with rides, room for food trucks, and the bus John Madden used to ride on to games.
"John Madden would not fly," Graffice said. "So he traveled by bus and this is the actual Madden bus."
Graffice said the best part of all is that they’re not done building. This enshrinement weekend is just a taste of the new attractions to come.
"This is just the beginning," Graffice said. "We are in the throes of finishing phase two. Just over to my right, you’ll see a gigantic hole that’s actually coming up out of the ground. That is our indoor football-themed water park. Well over 100,000 square feet of indoor wet space.”
Graffice said the museum and field are now becoming an entertainment destination.