Opinion: WOW future hangs on expansion, capital

The birds are chirping. The otters are playful. The sharks cruise the aquariums. Perhaps they, too, feel relieved of the immense pressure once imposed by the $36 million debt load on the facility at Sunshine and Campbell.

The animals and their caretakers owe thanks to Johnny Morris and the 1,500 bondholders that accepted Morris’ buyout offer in February.

Even though the American National Fish & Wildlife Museum, built as a $52 million haven for conservation, has all but flopped in its first three years, new blood in the operation is keeping things upbeat.

That new blood is executive director Tony Schoonen, who has been on board nine months – meaning he’s already reached half the average tenure of his predecessors. The average length of stay of previous directors Jack Payne and Fred Marty was 17 months.

Those associated with Wonders of Wildlife say there’s no immediate threat of another director vacancy.

“I anticipate (Schoonen’s) being here for a very long time,” said Mark Heins, WOW sales associate for the past year. “My opinion is that Tony Schoonen is the first really good choice that they’ve made as an executive director for this type of a facility. Tony is very aware of what it takes to make a place like this succeed because of his involvement with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.”

Previously working as vice president of marketing and communications at the foundation put Schoonen in touch with important people, said Gary Ellison, WOW spokesman.

“He brings to us a connection to people in the hunting industry with pockets, some of them deep,” Ellison said.

Evidence is the $200,000 Schoonen secured earlier this year from the Archery Hall of Fame and Museum, which plans to move to WOW when it expands. Those expansion plans were unveiled at a Dec. 2 reception at the museum, or I should say zooquarium – the name one-time interim director Max Peterson gave it.

At the top of WOW’s roadmap for the future is a rendering upon which all things successful hang for the museum. (See the rendering on page 35.) The centerpiece is a rotunda with finger-like walkways joining Wonders of Wildlife, Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World and the yet-to-be-built IMAX theater and education conservation center.

The rotunda’s first floor will be a grand entrance to all four facilities; visitors enter through a walkway suspended over water.

The construction timeline is an aggressive 12 months.

“When this thing is done, we are going to have one great big party,” Schoonen told a room full of museum supporters at the unveiling.

When it is complete, attendance is expected to grow from about 300,000 a year to near 400,000 a year. Until then, WOW staff is working on growing revenues – largely through corporate sponsorships.

Officials have scrapped the corporate membership program that accepted members for $2,500 to $10,000 in favor of the Wildlife Heritage Circle, a philanthropic program currently consisting of about 200 individuals and companies that donate at their leisure, Heins said.

At the recent reception, circle member Commerce Bank issued a $2,500 check, its chosen annual contribution. Bank executive Bob Hammerschmidt said there is more to come from Commerce, and bank officials are budgeting for a contribution to a museum capital campaign that is in the planning stages (details were not available at press time).

Since the museum’s inception, Commerce Bank has given WOW $20,000 and another $40,000 as trustee of the W.T. Kemper Foundation.

That’s only a snapshot of one corporate giver.

Another is Great Southern Bank, which is entering the final year of a 3-year $20,000 educational program for Springfield sixth graders. Heins said officials plan to discuss extending that.

There is more work to be done.

“I think there is a lot more that they can do,” Hammerschmidt said. Beyond dollars, Hammerschmidt is offering an idea to grow attendance. An active Boy Scout leader in Springfield, Hammerschmidt feels that WOW is missing the scout market. He often takes troops to Cosmosphere, a space museum in Hutchinson, Kan.

“We go over there once a year,” Hammerschmidt said. “I was thinking on one trip over there when I had a van load of boys what it would be like to have a steady stream of scouts coming to the Wonders of Wildlife, or to Springfield in general.”

Hammerschmidt said there are about 150,000 scouts in the contiguous councils. “If those people came here to get the fish and wildlife management merit badge – there are about 20 merit badges that can be done out of the Wonders of Wildlife – you can really have quite an economic impact of people traveling from other places to Springfield,” he said.

Cosmosphere draws about 400,000 visitors a year. “It’s out in the middle of nowhere. It’s northwest of Wichita. To get that many visitors out in the middle of nowhere is pretty amazing.

“This is the heart of the Ozarks, to have a million visitors should be easy – and I’d like to see 10 percent of those be scouts. I think it’s very possible.”

Eric Olson is Springfield Business Journal news editor.