Wichita ? Officials from the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame say budget shortfalls might force them to close its doors, a little more than a year after moving to its current location.

Executive director Ted Hayes said the nonprofit Hall of Fame is seeking $500,000 annually from the Legislature.

“The fact that the Hall of Fame needs support is not a surprise,” Hayes said. “We are a state agency, created by the Kansas Legislature. That we are a state agency is something we’ve had a hard time getting the Legislature to recognize.”

The hall was in Abilene when it closed in 2002. Wichita paid $1.7 million to buy and renovate a building in the city’s historic Old Town section, and after an $800,000 donation from hotel magnate John Q. Hammons, the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame reopened in its 27,000-square-foot home in November 2005.

But Hayes said it has never been properly funded, instead receiving sporadic “go-away type” grants.

“We have an annual budget of just under a million dollars,” Hayes said. “We need permanent state funding for the state’s Sports Hall of Fame.”

The hall’s board of trustees, appointed by the governor, voted last fall to close if the state does not provide funding.

Hayes plans to lead a presentation to the Legislature’s south-central delegation today, and hopes those lawmakers will press their colleagues in the Statehouse for money funding. Possible solutions are through a line item in the state budget or a special lottery game, with the proceeds earmarked for the hall.

“There’s no doubt that having this beautiful facility open and running helps our cause,” Hayes said. “We don’t want it to go away, and we feel real good about the posture we’re taking on this.”