Problems In Pensacola
Mon Jan 09, 2006 9:40 am
Published - January, 9, 2006
Attendance shortfall grounds upgrade
Troy Moon
@PensacolaNewsJournal.com
It's 11 a.m. and the doors are open, but on this weekday, the interior of the National Museum of Naval Aviation resembles an airplane graveyard.
One side of the cavernous museum is completely empty of life. On the other side, a group of five people take a guided tour through the hulking aircraft exhibit. It's almost as if they have the 291,000-square-foot museum to themselves.
It's quite a contrast to just a few years back, when nearly 1 million people a year visited the museum, making it the Pensacola Bay Area's most popular tourist attraction.
But this is post-Hurricane Ivan.
The number of visitors to the museum, which houses more than 130 aircraft and spacecraft, has dropped dramatically, and new construction that would nearly double the museum's size has been put off.
Before 2004, the museum averaged 800,000 to 1 million visitors each year. In 2004, when the museum was closed for a month because of Hurricane Ivan, 650,000 visited. Last year, the number dropped to 508,672.
"Not as many people are visiting the Gulf Coast,'' said retired Navy Capt. Charles Ellis, the museum foundation's deputy chief executive officer. "And not as many people visited the museum as we would have liked.''
Before Hurricane Ivan hit in September 2004, about 80 percent of visitors came from outside the Pensacola Bay Area and about 70 percent from out of state, museum officials said.
Now, in light of the tourism slowdown, the museum plans to cut back on advertising in distant cities and instead try to lure visitors closer to home, said Fred Geiger, the museum's temporary marketing director and full-time IMAX Theater director.
"We're not going to try to spend the money to attract the market from Chicago,'' he said. "We're going to look at the surrounding 150 miles.''
Besides sagging attendance, another setback for the museum was the postponement of construction that was supposed to begin this month on the proposed National Flight Academy.
Construction was postponed in October when museum officials announced that soaring building costs -- in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's strike to the west of here last summer as well as Ivan -- have raised the cost of the project from $35 million to between $50 million and $60 million.
The 245,000-square-foot academy would provide weeklong programs in math, science and flight for about 4,000 seventh- to 12th-graders annually.
The museum has raised $34 million for the project, only $1 million short of the original projected cost.
"But two hurricanes escalated costs beyond our wildest dreams,'' Geiger said.
Museum officials hope to break ground next January but won't do it until all the money is raised.
"We're still hitting individuals for contributions,'' Ellis said. "We're looking toward corporations and also pursuing educational grants at the federal and state levels. But our requirement is that we don't stick a shovel in the ground until the money is raised.''
Still, there have been bright spots at the museum.
Those who do visit still leave impressed.
"My father was in Vietnam, so it's really neat for me to see all this,'' said Teri Nicholson of Houston, who visited the museum for the first time last week. "It makes you proud of the country when you see all this (military) strength.''
The museum also has been averaging nearly 100 schoolchildren each weekday attending the Flight Adventure Deck, which offers educational day-trips to middle school students.
And some days are better than others.
Three days after visitors were counted on one hand in the middle of the day, the museum was packed with nearly 100 visitors -- many of them attending a retirement ceremony in the museum's atrium. Other visitors filled the expanded Cubi Bar Cafe, eating lunch and looking out at the shining aircraft of yesterday.
"Oh, I think it's great,'' said Dot Simpson of Tallahassee, while eating a sandwich at the cafe. "There's just so much history here. I don't know much about airplanes, but there's so much other stuff, too.'
As I understand, it is also a big pain in the b-tt to get on base since 911. I hear you can't come in the main gate, you have to around to the backside.
Anyway--hope it picks up. 
Robbie
Attendance shortfall grounds upgrade
Troy Moon
@PensacolaNewsJournal.com
It's 11 a.m. and the doors are open, but on this weekday, the interior of the National Museum of Naval Aviation resembles an airplane graveyard.
One side of the cavernous museum is completely empty of life. On the other side, a group of five people take a guided tour through the hulking aircraft exhibit. It's almost as if they have the 291,000-square-foot museum to themselves.
It's quite a contrast to just a few years back, when nearly 1 million people a year visited the museum, making it the Pensacola Bay Area's most popular tourist attraction.
But this is post-Hurricane Ivan.
The number of visitors to the museum, which houses more than 130 aircraft and spacecraft, has dropped dramatically, and new construction that would nearly double the museum's size has been put off.
Before 2004, the museum averaged 800,000 to 1 million visitors each year. In 2004, when the museum was closed for a month because of Hurricane Ivan, 650,000 visited. Last year, the number dropped to 508,672.
"Not as many people are visiting the Gulf Coast,'' said retired Navy Capt. Charles Ellis, the museum foundation's deputy chief executive officer. "And not as many people visited the museum as we would have liked.''
Before Hurricane Ivan hit in September 2004, about 80 percent of visitors came from outside the Pensacola Bay Area and about 70 percent from out of state, museum officials said.
Now, in light of the tourism slowdown, the museum plans to cut back on advertising in distant cities and instead try to lure visitors closer to home, said Fred Geiger, the museum's temporary marketing director and full-time IMAX Theater director.
"We're not going to try to spend the money to attract the market from Chicago,'' he said. "We're going to look at the surrounding 150 miles.''
Besides sagging attendance, another setback for the museum was the postponement of construction that was supposed to begin this month on the proposed National Flight Academy.
Construction was postponed in October when museum officials announced that soaring building costs -- in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's strike to the west of here last summer as well as Ivan -- have raised the cost of the project from $35 million to between $50 million and $60 million.
The 245,000-square-foot academy would provide weeklong programs in math, science and flight for about 4,000 seventh- to 12th-graders annually.
The museum has raised $34 million for the project, only $1 million short of the original projected cost.
"But two hurricanes escalated costs beyond our wildest dreams,'' Geiger said.
Museum officials hope to break ground next January but won't do it until all the money is raised.
"We're still hitting individuals for contributions,'' Ellis said. "We're looking toward corporations and also pursuing educational grants at the federal and state levels. But our requirement is that we don't stick a shovel in the ground until the money is raised.''
Still, there have been bright spots at the museum.
Those who do visit still leave impressed.
"My father was in Vietnam, so it's really neat for me to see all this,'' said Teri Nicholson of Houston, who visited the museum for the first time last week. "It makes you proud of the country when you see all this (military) strength.''
The museum also has been averaging nearly 100 schoolchildren each weekday attending the Flight Adventure Deck, which offers educational day-trips to middle school students.
And some days are better than others.
Three days after visitors were counted on one hand in the middle of the day, the museum was packed with nearly 100 visitors -- many of them attending a retirement ceremony in the museum's atrium. Other visitors filled the expanded Cubi Bar Cafe, eating lunch and looking out at the shining aircraft of yesterday.
"Oh, I think it's great,'' said Dot Simpson of Tallahassee, while eating a sandwich at the cafe. "There's just so much history here. I don't know much about airplanes, but there's so much other stuff, too.'
As I understand, it is also a big pain in the b-tt to get on base since 911. I hear you can't come in the main gate, you have to around to the backside.
Anyway--hope it picks up.
Robbie
Mon Jan 09, 2006 11:47 am
I visited the museum over Labor Day and thoroughly enjoyed it. I hadn't been since the late '70's. I have a friend who recently moved to Pensacola , so I hope to go again.
PJ
PJ
Mon Jan 09, 2006 2:39 pm
I'm sure attendance will pick up once mother nature stops blowing so many hurricanes thru there!
Mon Jan 09, 2006 6:54 pm
i feel that john q. six pack aviation enthusiast or even the common u.s. citizen is financially strapped, & can't travel due to the tanking economy, high unemployment etc, high gas prices especially, regardless if traveling by air or car, on top of the horrific hurricane carnage 2 years back to back.
Mon Jan 09, 2006 7:45 pm
Come on Tom, I would like to go over to Pensacola. The last time I went in 2001 just before 911. Now I can't get over there because the economy is "too good". I can even get a free weekend to do volunteer to work on warbirds I love right now. It's aggravating...
Mon Jan 09, 2006 8:23 pm
Hey Boy's I am up for a road trip. Maybe we can do a Southeastern WIX"er
visit/get together in P-Cola! As you fellows know I am in Atlanta, just a few hours drive to P-Cola. If some of you other guys can figure out when it's good time for yall ---then we will go on down & spend a day or two in good ole Pensacola. TRADER JON'S ain't there no more, but I am sure we can find a place to meet up.
Just kick around that thought (as my Dad used to say) Lets see whats happens. H-ll will let them Yankee Snowball Militia Boys come on down! Just a thought?
Regards
Robbie
visit/get together in P-Cola! As you fellows know I am in Atlanta, just a few hours drive to P-Cola. If some of you other guys can figure out when it's good time for yall ---then we will go on down & spend a day or two in good ole Pensacola. TRADER JON'S ain't there no more, but I am sure we can find a place to meet up.
Just kick around that thought (as my Dad used to say) Lets see whats happens. H-ll will let them Yankee Snowball Militia Boys come on down! Just a thought?
Regards
Robbie
Mon Jan 09, 2006 8:37 pm
Sounds good to me....Tom
Mon Jan 09, 2006 8:40 pm
tom d. friedman wrote:i feel that john q. six pack aviation enthusiast or even the common u.s. citizen is financially strapped, & can't travel due to the tanking economy, high unemployment etc, high gas prices especially, regardless if traveling by air or car, on top of the horrific hurricane carnage 2 years back to back.
Economy tanking? High unemployment? Are you kidding? I hardly call a 4.96% unemployment rate the indicator of a 'tanking' economy. Most people in business that I talk to have more work than they can handle. Myself included.
PS: Oh yeah, the Dow closed above 11k for the first time since 2001 today. Run for cover the sky is falling!
Mon Jan 09, 2006 9:39 pm
i voted for dubya in the last 2 elections. i'm not knocking him. let me re-phrase my comment..... the economy is tanking in regions of the u.s., especially here on the great lakes, from minnesota up to maine. this is the rust belt, highest unemployment, highest attrition rate of people going belly up etc. other than hurricane ravaged south areas the economy down their is booming. as to the south west region of the u.s. .... booming. this aviation buff hasn't done squat in near 2 years up here. a few good days on the stock market doesn't say anything, we need long term progress. all the best, tom