"Whether those games would need to have luminaries like Schaefer and Gilbert attached to attract any interest remains an open question…"
The answer, judging by the thousands of much less well-funded Kickstarter projects, is yes.  Yes they do.

No, it was exactly awesome, because that is something that can be exactly measured.

Would be awesome if someone would note that this statue won't actually be in Cleveland (Cleveland Heights is a suburb).