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People and Pop Culture

Closing Shot: Nod of approval

The new Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in downtown Milwaukee offers a fun take on an iconic part of pop culture and one of the most popular promotional giveaways in sports.

Guests may find their heads swimming after viewing the more than 10,000 bobbleheads on display.Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum

What do you get when you combine a childhood friendship with a mascot named Rocco, a failed Kickstarter campaign and the unrealistic expectations of a guy known as Ronnie Woo Woo? The Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum, which opened last weekend in downtown Milwaukee.

 

Phil Sklar and Brad Novak became friends while attending middle school in Rockford, Ill., and both attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Sklar earned his masters in accounting at Notre Dame and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

 

The seed for the museum was unknowingly planted in 2003, when Novak interned at the Frontier League Rockford (Ill.) RiverHawks. His boss gave him a bobblehead of the team’s mascot, Rocco the RiverHawk, the first of a collection of 10,000 that is now on display in an old foundry at the edge of Milwaukee’s historic Walker’s Point neighborhood and the trendy Third Ward.

 

Over the next decade, Sklar said, the pair amassed a bobblehead collection that “ballooned to almost 3,000 and was growing out of control.”

 

It’s no surprise given the role bobbleheads play in sports. SBJ’s annual analysis of MLB game-day giveaways, for example, shows that 2018 was the seventh year in a row that MLB teams were more likely to use a bobblehead to lure fans to the ballpark than any other promotional item.

 

Sklar and Novak began researching the concept of having a museum with a branded-retail component. A $250,000 Kickstarter effort in 2014 generated just $50,000, but gave the duo the insights they needed into launching the endeavor.

 

That year, they released the first HOF-branded item, a bobblehead of Chicago Cubs superfan Ronnie Woo Woo. They had 5,000 made but only sold about 1,500. “We learned that selling 5,000 in Excel is a lot easier than selling 5,000 bobbleheads to customers,” Sklar said.

 

Today, no one is off-limits for the head bobblers. During Loyola’s unexpected March Madness success last March, for example, the pair capitalized on the sudden stardom of the Ramblers’ 99-year-old fan, Sister Jean. Presales began 48 hours after contacting the school, and more than 17,500 of her bobbleheads have been sold.

 

“My favorites are the ones with great stories behind them, like our friend Special Olympian Michael Poll, Rick Monday saving the flag, a one-of-a-kind mold from the earliest sports bobbleheads in the 1960s and our life-sized Founding Member Bobblehead,” Sklar said.

 

He said that their online business last year generated “seven-figure revenue for the second time” and that the museum has already raised approximately $50,000 through membership sales ($20 for basic to $1,000 for lifetime membership). The first induction at the HOF will take place in the second half of the year and they are projecting an overall attendance of 30,000 to 40,000 guests in 2019.

 

Want to see for yourself? Admission is five bucks.

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