The leaving: Atlanta chosen, and the last afternoon

2009 – 2012

The end arrived by letter. On Tuesday, September 22, 2009, the National Football Foundation notified the city that it was terminating its agreement when the current lease ended, on December 31, 2010. Archie Manning, the Foundation's chairman, announced the move to Atlanta that September; the Foundation's own account says it accepted a compelling proposal from a group in Atlanta. Dallas, backed by T. Boone Pickens, had been the rival suitor. The Hall did not leave on the lease's schedule: it operated in South Bend through two more seasons under the transition, and by the last festival summer the Tribune's Al Lesar was writing its obituary in advance — "Hall to Be Gone by December," July 22, 2012. The museum's final day of operation was Sunday, December 30, 2012; some listings give December 31, and the Foundation's own release fixes the final day on the 30th, and governs.

The city came to say goodbye. Attendance for the final weekend, December 29–30, approached 4,000 visitors in the Foundation's count — near record attendance — and the Tribune's report, carried by the Sports Business Journal, put it at more than 4,000, on a final-day admission of $2 against the usual $7 to $14. All proceeds from the final two days were donated, by the Foundation's prior announcement, in equal shares to the football programs of the five South Bend high schools: Adams, Clay, Riley, Saint Joseph and Washington. The two days raised $16,599. Kent Stephens, the curator who had opened the Hall in 1995, closed it; in the next few weeks, the Tribune reported, three large moving trucks would ship the contents of the Hall south to Atlanta, to storage near the new site, against the 2014 opening there. The Hall had been a South Bend institution for seventeen years and four months. It left the city with about $3 million in bond payments still outstanding, on the record stated in the deal entry above.

Sources:

1. Associated Press and Indianapolis Business Journal, September 23, 2009 — the Foundation's letter of September 22, 2009, the lease's end of December 31, 2010, and the Atlanta announcement under Chairman Archie Manning.
2. National Football Foundation — its acceptance of the Atlanta proposal, and, with the Dallas bid backed by T. Boone Pickens, the rival candidacy, from the Hall's institutional history.
3. Al Lesar, South Bend Tribune, July 22, 2012, and December 30, 2012 — the coming December end, curator Kent Stephens's tenure from beginning to end, and the three moving trucks to Atlanta storage.
4. National Football Foundation release, January 24, 2013 — the final day of operation, Sunday, December 30, 2012; the near-record final weekend approaching 4,000 visitors; and the $16,599 raised for the five South Bend high school football programs.
5. Sports Business Journal, January 7, 2013 — the Tribune's more-than-4,000 count for the final weekend, and the $2 final-day admission against the usual $7 to $14.