CANTON − Visitors to the Pro Football Hall of Fame will experience more of a wow factor when the lobby is enlarged and modernized thanks to an injection of funding approved by NFL owners.
The work will be part of the third phase of renovations at the shrine to professional football's greatest players. NFL funding, approved by team owners on Aug. 26, will cover a portion of the lobby work. The amount of the financial commitment was not immediately available.
And based on a rendering of the new lobby, it will be snazzy.
Phase three costs roughly $33 million and features an 8,000-square-foot expansion of the museum, including creation of the grand lobby and the Coach John Madden Broadcast Studio. It also will add interactive exhibits focusing on the league's first 100 years and its member clubs, a Hall of Fame news release said.
The expanded and modernized lobby is expected to be significantly bigger than the existing one, according to the Hall of Fame. The goal is to use the studio space for in-house podcasts and guest podcasts, said Rich Desrosiers, chief communications and content officer at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The broadcast studio mostly will be located above the grand lobby.
Interactive exhibits, with special video screens, will be in the lobby to greet guests, Desrosiers said. But the bulk of the interactive exhibits within phase three will be located elsewhere in the museum, he said.
Improvements are part of an overall $102 million modernization project at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which recently enshrined the 2026 class.
"We are extremely grateful to (NFL) Commissioner Roger Goodell and the owners of the National Football League for sharing our vision for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and its future," Hall of Fame President and CEO Jim Porter said in a prepared statement. "With each expansion of the museum across its rich 63-year history, Hall of Fame leadership has been able to count on the support from the league."
Unanimous vote on NFL funding for HOF projectPorter noted that the NFL’s Hall of Fame Committee, comprised of seven team owners, voted unanimously on the measure that owners approved on Aug. 26 at a meeting in Atlanta. It will allow the Hall to move forward aggressively on the third of the six phases in its “Evolve 2030” modernization plan, the Hall of Fame said in the news release.
Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, chairs the league's Hall of Fame Committee. Other committee members (either team owners or representatives) are Gayle Benson of the New Orleans Saints; Mark Davis, Las Vegas Raiders; Bryan Glazer, Tampa Bay Buccaneers; JW Johnson, Cleveland Browns; Ed Policy, Green Bay Packers; and Amy Adams Strunk, Tennessee Titans.
KeyBank Center scheduled to be finished in early springPhase one of the overall modernization project involved updates to the Nash Family Event and Conference Center. Phase two, construction of the KeyBank Center, has progressed on budget, and the facility is scheduled to open in early spring, the Hall of Fame said.
The $19 million KeyBank Center will provide the largest meeting and event space of its kind in Northeast Ohio, the news release said.
The facility is adjacent to the football museum on the northern edge of the property.
Desrosiers has said previously it's expected that some enshrinement-related events will be in the KeyBank Center during the 2027 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival.
Major events like the Enshrinees' Gold Jacket Dinner and Fashion Show Luncheon have traditionally taken place in the roughly 5,000-seat Canton Memorial Civic Center.
The KeyBank Center will include a kitchen and have roughly 12,000 square feet on the ground floor. In addition to hosting Hall of Fame events throughout the year, the KeyBank Center also will be open to nonprofit community groups for free use, Porter has said.
KeyBank Center will offer convenience and efficiencies, with a capacity of 850 to 1,000 people, Porter said.
The facility will hold up to an additional 500 people on a 6,500-square-foot turf rooftop terrace. The second floor also will include a cafe and 1,000-square-foot VIP Club, with room for 120 to 150 people, the Hall's top executive said.
An integrated 27-foot-high glass system will open to the outside for some events while incorporating a mini turf field for additional space.
Grants, naming rights deals and Hall of Fame funding have covered the first two phases of the modernization project without the Hall of Fame incurring debt, the press release said.
“The aim of the Hall of Fame is to ensure that any new project builds upon its solid foundation, and the generous contribution from league owners (Aug. 26) helps significantly toward that end,” Porter said in the release. “We are proud of our role as stewards of professional football’s history. We take seriously our core mission: to honor the greatest who have played, coached or contributed; to preserve the history of the game; and to share with future generations the stories that have made NFL football this country’s No. 1 spectator sport.”
Reach Ed at ed.balint@cantonrep.com. Follow on Instagram at ed_balint and TikTok @edwardbalint
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Pro Football HOF gets NFL funding for grand lobby, broadcast studio
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