Who "Owns" a sports HoF?

[Fritz]

Who Owns a sports HoF?

Of course, my question stems from the rash of HoF discussion around these parts. It got me thinking about who has ownership of the halls.

It seem pretty clear to me that a team's individual hall or merit list belongs to the team/ team's owner. In most cases, it seems to be way for a team to thank a player for their contributions.

But a larger HoF is more clouded. Based on the discussions, I am wondering if the HoF is owned players, a leauge/sport, owners, media, or fans.

I know the way membership is selected is often by a media based selection board, but who do these media types represent? Are they enlightened representatives of the fan, some sort of semi affiliated caretakers of the sport, player avdocates, or something else?

Anyhow, just something in the middle of the week to ponder.

[JonInMiddleGA]

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc. in Cooperstown, NY is a not-for-profit corporation operated by a board of directors.
http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/about/history.htm

The Pro Football Hall of Fame "...operates as an independent, non-profit organization. Its 24-member Board of Trustees include 17 members from Canton and/or local area. "

[Fritz]

obviously i wasn't clear. I didn;t mean who actually own a HoF.

[vtbub]

BBWA=Baseball Writers of America does Cooperstown, I believe you need to be a member for x amount of years to vote.

Canton is done by a small community of writers.

I'm not sure about basketball and hockey.

I'd say it's long term media looking out for what they think of the best of the game.

[WSUCougar]

I do not.

[Kodos]

I think VPI owns IHoF.

[QuikSand]

semi affiliated caretakers of the sport

In the spirit of your question, that sounds closest to the mark for me.

[Pyser]

they are all stewards until the one true baseball king returns to re-claim his throne. or something.

[JonInMiddleGA]

obviously i wasn't clear. I didn;t mean who actually own a HoF.

Although I did interpret your question pretty literally, and answered as such, I think there might be some clues there to the philosophical answer you were apparently looking for too.

Consider this: the two HOF's I Googled the details for are basically the same set-up: not-for-profit corporations ultimately controlled by a relatively small board (small compared to the "baseball universe" or the "football universe"). In turn, those people have delegated membership to another group of people, again a relatively small sample of "the universe".

I think that actually answers the question of "who do the Hall's belong to" -- they "belong" to a handful of people who are in the position of controlling them. Not to "the people" or to "the game" or whatever, but truly, to a select group of people who choose to share some of their goodies with a larger audience.