Bucs owners give museum $5M boost

The Glazer Foundation gives its largest gift ever to the children's facility.

By JANET ZINK, Times Staff Writer
Published October 16, 2007

TAMPA - The owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday announced a $5-million donation to a new children's museum to be built in downtown Tampa.

The Glazer Children's Museum, scheduled to open in 2009, will be built on the north end of Curtis Hixon Park, next to the planned new Tampa Museum of Art.

Monday's donation is the largest gift ever from the Glazer Family Foundation, established in 1999 and funded largely by the partnership that owns the Bucs.

Since it began, the foundation has awarded less than $500,000 each year to a variety of organizations, with most of the gifts topping out at less than $5,000.

The Children's Museum board had approached the Glazer foundation for a donation in the past. Edward Glazer, the foundation's president, said his brother Bryan called him about a month ago and brought up the idea of donating.

He immediately called his brother Joel and sister Darcie.

"Literally, within five minutes we said, 'It's a go,'" Edward Glazer said. "It was the quickest $5-million we've ever spent in our lives."

Glazer said whenever he travels to a new city with his three children, the first thing he looks for is kid-friendly activities. Children's museums are always one of their first stops.

Museum leaders need to raise $21-million for the 50,000-square-foot facility, which is slated for groundbreaking in the summer, said Heidi Shimberg, chairwoman of the museum board. The Glazer donation takes the museum past its first fundraising goal of $9-million, she said.

"We want to thank the Glazer family for this generous gift, which will make the building of a world-class children's museum in our community a reality," she said.

Mayor Pam Iorio plans for the city to spend $15-million renovating Curtis Hixon Park, which she says will be part of the "renaissance" of downtown.

"The Children's Museum is going to be the main attraction," she said at a news conference announcing the Glazer gift.

The current Children's Museum, next to the Lowry Park Zoo, has 5,000 square feet of exhibit space, most of it outdoors in a miniature village called Kid City.

The new three-story museum will feature 21,000 square feet for permanent displays and 8,000 square feet for rotating exhibits, classrooms, and a family resource center.

Hands-on exhibits, geared toward children from birth through age 10, will explore science, social studies and art.

Shimberg said there won't be a football exhibit at the museum, but one display will focus on the importance of an active lifestyle.

"I think there's a football in there," she said. "There's a soccer ball, too."

The Glazers also own the Manchester United soccer team.

Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or 813 226-3401. Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.

[Last modified October 16, 2007, 00:45:09]