BC Sports Hall of Fame CEO Sue Griffin told Business in Vancouver yesterday that she would reveal the design for her 20,000-square-foot facility’s Olympic and Paralymic wing at a private function later today.
“We’re in the planning and design stage for the build of a new Olympic and Paralympic celebration wing,” Griffin said. “We will stay the same size but we will gut 6,000 square feet.”
The new wing will house the Olympic torch that Canadian Olympic champion skier Nancy Greene used to ignite the Olympic cauldron alongside Wayne Gretzky, Rick Hansen, Steve Nash and Catriona LeMay Doan at the opening ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
Each of those celebrated Canadian athletes have signed Greene’s torch.
Griffin will not, however, lobby the Toronto-based Hockey Hall of Fame for any hockey items from Vancouver’s Olympics.
“There’s no battle. We have a very good relationship with them,” Griffin said. “Would we like them? Absolutely. Am I disappointed that they’ve gone out of province? Without a doubt.”
Many of those items, such as the stick that Sidney Crosby used to score the Olympic gold-medal-winning goal, may come back to B.C. at some point as part of a short-term loan, Griffin said.
The BC Sports Hall of Fame has an $800,000 annual operating budget and employs five staff. The hall is currently closed because it is located at BC Place, which is being renovated and outfitted with a new roof.
The hall’s five staff members have all kept their jobs, Griffin said. Board members decided that, instead of lay-offs, employees could focus on what Griffin called “outreach.”
That entails initiatives such as travelling the province visiting schools and showing children some of the items the hall will one day have on display.
“Our collection includes about 25,000 artifacts and more than 20,000 archival documents – scrapbooks etc.,” Griffin said.
“About 99% is in storage but we’ve kept key artifacts that we take with us.”