The facility is a 94,256 square feet (8,756.7 m2) attraction located in the heart of Atlanta's sports, entertainment and tourism district, and is adjacent to the Georgia World Congress Center and Centennial Olympic Park.

[1] In 1949, Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, was selected as the site for football's Hall of Fame, via a vote by thousands of sportswriters, coaches, and athletic leaders.

[4][5] In choosing the site, it had been hoped that the museum could attract the same visitors attending the adjacent Kings Island amusement park, but this failed to happen.

[5] The Hall opened with good attendance figures early on, but visitation dwindled dramatically as time went on and never truly met projections.

[5] Patrick McMahon, Project Future's executive director, collaborated with over a hundred people to craft a proposal for South Bend to host the Hall of Fame, which was presented to the National Football Foundation in November 1992.

[5] On July 13, 1992, William Pearce, chairman of the National Football Foundation, made the announcement that South Bend had won the bid to host the Hall of Fame's new location.

[9] By the late 1990s, some had already begun to criticize the Hall of Fame in South Bend as a failure, due to a lack of corporate sponsorship and poor turnout even during special events.

[19] Hall of Fame CEO Kimberly Beaudin told ESPN that only the gift shop was looted, adding that "no artifacts or displays were damaged".

[20] In 2022, civil rights icon and Pitt Hall of Famer Bobby Grier along with family and Blake Van Leer were invited for a VIP tour.

[25] The National Football Foundation outlines specific criteria that may be used for evaluating a possible candidate for induction into the Hall of Fame.