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Delco Museum of Sports Legends Scrambling To Find New Location

By Brad Segall

MEDIA, Pa. (CBS) -- A sports museum dedicated to athletes and coaches from Delaware County is in search of a new home, as well as some financial support to keep its sports treasures on display for the public.

The Mickey Vernon Sports Museum has called the Granite Run Mall home for nearly two years.  But the mall has been sold, and will be demolished to make way for a town center.  The museum will close its doors this Saturday.

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(Baseball legend Mickey Vernon, right, the Delaware County native for whom the museum is named. Photo provided)

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Curator Jim Vankoski says the museum had a favorable lease at the Granite Run Mall, costing them only about $1,000 a month for rent.

"But the fair market value for three thousand square feet in Delaware County is going to be $2,500 to $3,000 a month," he notes, adding, "That's the problem -- we just don't have that kind of financial clout.  We're completely, 100-percent, a volunteer organization."

He says donations from the ten thousand visitors who walked through the doors while they were there was typically enough to cover the rent.

Vankoski says a sizeable chunk of their memorabilia -- which included photos, letters, autographs, and equipment -- is already in storage.

 

 

 

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