The Sports Museum of America, which was located near Battery Park in Manhattan and also contained the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, closed after less than a year. This could move to Buffalo and be instead for “North America” to include Canada’s sports history. The space they vacated near Manhattan’s Battery Park could house the proposed Erie Canal Museum and Museum of Women: The Leadership Center that have yet to happen, which would help tourism in both Upstate and Downstate and encourage history and canal tourism along the Erie Canal and Cayuga-Seneca Canal and the cities and towns along the corridors these and other Upstate canals and former canal routes. The international Women’s Sports Hall of Fame and the also-closed National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, meanwhile, could move to Rochester.

As well, this could complement the existing and proposed museums down there regarding transportation, weather, and aerospace. Also, the bicycle museum, which closed in East Aurora, should become part of either the Buffalo Museum of Transportation/Pierce Arrow Museum, or the Maritime Museum that is supposed to move into part of the Francis G. Ward Pumping Station.

The Rainbow Mall or the Niagara Falls Redevelopment property could house the shelved idea for Aquafalls or an expanded Niagara Falls Aquarium. The existing aquarium or these two sites could also house the proposed or possible museums for weather, aerospace, children.

Kevin F. Yost, Henrietta

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