WOW finds pace after five years

In 2002, its first full year of operation, WOW drew more than 405,000 people. In each of the next four years, WOW drew between 220,992 and 251,882 people – far short of market-study predictions of 900,000 to more than 1 million annual visitors.

“Certainly, any time you don’t meet projections … it’s a disappointment,” said WOW Board Vice Chairman Lee Gannaway, a practicing attorney and former Springfield mayor. “We’d certainly love to see nearly a million people go through the museum every year, but … if you total up all of those who have gone through it’s a pretty substantial number over the five-year period.”

Since opening, WOW has drawn 1.3 million visitors.

Directly tied to attendance, operating revenues have hovered at $2.3 million to $2.6 million since 2003. Nonoperating revenues have fluctuated between $15.8 million in 2005 and $4.2 million in 2003.

In spite of a $6.5 million total revenue dip last year, Gannaway and others say the museum is making enough money to continue operations.

Supporting that view, WOW has been able to pay off $30 million of its original $36 million debt.

The 92,000-square-foot museum – which cost $52 million to build, using a $7.5 million state grant and $8 million in state tax credits among other public financing – opened in November 2001.

“The worst of our growing pains are behind us,” said Executive Director Tony Schoonen. “I’m very optimistic about the financial condition of the company.”

‘Mother church’

WOW’s financial status is strong enough that expansions are still planned, even though a two-year-old agreement with London-based IMAX theater developer Bella Films fell apart in January. Officials are exploring new options.

“The expansion is going to happen,” Schoonen said. “The big question is when.”

He also said plans are in place to spur growth thorough national exposure.

Beginning in 2008, WOW will partner with 45 other wildlife organizations to provide conservation education in classrooms across the nation.

WOW also has teamed with National Shooting Sports Foundation to become the annual home of National Hunting and Fishing Day. WOW hosted the event for the first time in September and generated $100,000 from it. Comedian Jeff Foxworthy already has been named honorary chairman for the 2007 event, slated for Sept. 22.

Those high-profile affiliations precede national membership and fund-raising drives coming in the next few years.

“We’re creating the mother church here,” Schoonen said. “These national programs that we’re initiating right now are going to firmly establish us as the place to come if you want to learn about the heritage of hunting and angling and the place to come if you want to learn about conservation education.”

Early mistakes

One-fifth of all visitors to Springfield visit WOW, according to Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Tracy Kimberlin.

By contrast, the adjacent Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World snags 65 percent of Springfield visitors, he said.

Paul Potthoff, a vice president with Regions Bank and WOW board member until 2004, said museum officials need to take better advantage of WOW’s proximity to Missouri’s No. 1 tourist attraction.

He suggests adding an inside entrance from Bass Pro.

As it is, WOW’s outside entrance is on the opposite side of the parking lot from Bass Pro’s main entrance. Considering the millions of taxpayer dollars invested in the project, Jefferson City politicians demanded that physical separation because they feared that Bass Pro founder John L. Morris, who donated the land for WOW, would unfairly benefit from museum traffic.

“(People are) not going to go to the museum and suddenly think, ‘Oh, look, there’s a Bass Pro. I think I’ll go in there and spend some money,’” Potthoff said. “They’re not going to suddenly be hoodwinked into going to Bass Pro because they think it’s part of the museum. That mentality is just goofy.”

Potthoff also suggests adding and marketing entertainment features. WOW’s mission is conservation education, but the board overestimated the general public’s willingness to pay $10.95 a person to learn, he said.

Customer surveys indicate that 96 percent of visitors said the ticket price was a great value and 80 percent said they went in expecting entertainment and came away learning something, said Gary Ellison, WOW spokesman.

While the museum has added entertainment features since it opened, Potthoff said there is still work to be done there.

“We didn’t recognize that Joe Six-pack isn’t going to show up to just learn about how to conserve water,” he said. “In today’s world, it is very hard to sell education. There has to be a few monkeys spinning plates or something to just get people to walk in the door.”

Debt Notes

On Jan. 9, WOW requested restructuring, reclassifying or forgiveness of a $2.5 million no-interest loan through the Missouri Development Finance Board. Then, a day later, the museum in a news release announced it was withdrawing that request after receiving “additional commitments.”

According to WOW Executive Director Tony Schoonen, the additional commitments didn’t come from one noteworthy source, such as Bass Pro owner John L. Morris, who has donated to the museum at least $30 million in cash, land and artifacts. It was simply a refocusing of monies already in the system, he said.

WOW officials say they have commitments to pay it off in the fall. It withdrew its request from MDFB because some MDFB board members were uncomfortable with the request, according to Schoonen.

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