U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum celebrates 5 year anniversary amid declining revenue, visitors
Mackenzie Stafford
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – July 30 marks the 5th anniversary of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museums’ (USOPM) opening.
To celebrate the anniversary, the museum welcomed guests with a discounted rate of $5.
“Today, we are celebrating our five-year anniversary. It’s been five years since the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum opened our doors to the public. So we’re just incredibly excited. Gratified. Pleased to be at this point, happy to have a great crowd come out to celebrate with us today, and looking forward to a great day,” said CEO of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum, Marisa Wigglesworth.
The day was jam-packed with touch-a-truck, U.S. Boxing demonstrations, and meet-and-greets with Paralympic athletes.
It comes at a time when the museum’s attendance and revenue are declining.
When the museum was in the initial planning phases, it was expected to bring in 350,000 visitors through its doors each year. But, in 2024, the attraction fell short by more than 260 thousand. Now, as the museum marks its 5th anniversary, the CEO shared her plan to bring in visitors.
“In our strategic plan, we have a handful of things that we call our big rocks. What are we really focusing on to move the organization forward and expand our mission as fully as possible? Engaging as many people as possible. So a handful of those big rocks are about increasing attendance. At the same time, we really do want to elevate the museum so that we have our rightful place on the national stage,” explained Marisa Wigglesworth.
They’re hoping to grow after a steady decline in dollars over the past five years, from making nearly 15 million in 2021 to only 6 million in 2024.
“We will be showcasing much more frequently updated artifacts and exhibit spaces as part of our ongoing operations,” said Wigglesworth.
With the Winter Olympics on the horizon, the museum hopes events leading up to the games will get the numbers closer to where they need to be. The USOPM tells KRDO13 they plan to have an event at the end of October to mark 100 days out from the Winter Olympics.
“We do want to be an asset for the folks who call Colorado Springs home. So we’ve also got programming that we hope appeals to people who wake up every morning here in Colorado Springs,” shared Wigglesworth.
So far this year, they’ve had nearly 45,00 visitors.
Every other year, the city of Colorado Springs gives the museum half a million dollars from a tourism tax, called the Lodgers and Automobile Rental Tax (LART), for the Hall of Fame event. Which, the museum says, brought in more than 5,000 guests in July.
Here are the numbers from the museum:
Attendance:
2021: 106,767
2022: 77,205
2023: 69,929
2024: 83,582
2025 (Jan. 1-July 13): 42,901
Revenues:
2021: $14,923,458
2022: $10,754,077
2023: $7,292,709
2024: $6,430,781
2025 (Jan. 1-June 30): $3,176,865