College Football HOF President Expects Annual Attendance Over 500,000

College Football HOF President & CEO John Stephenson said the facility is “absolutely” on track, and the focus now “turns to finalizing the exhibit design,” according to the ATLANTA BUSINESS CHRONICLE. Stephenson: “We also continue to close additional sponsorships and pursue other fundraising efforts so we can meet our financial goals.” He said of the HOF's attendance projections, “We made sure our projections were conservative, grounded in real data and allowed for fluctuations in the broader economic landscape. We engaged two separate firms to conduct independent studies (in 2010 and again in 2012), because attendance projection is the single most important line item in the business model.” Stephenson added, “Results of that exercise project us at 500,000 visitors annually. We believe that the data shows the actual number to be much higher … but we wanted to make sure our business model worked within this very conservative number” (ATLANTA BUSINESS CHRONICLE, 3/29 issue).