By Crystal Kingwell and John Besley
Somebody needs to learn to share. The federal government’s attitude toward the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame’s possible move to Ottawa borders on childish.
Both tourism and sporting authorities support moving the Hall to the government-owned Conference Centre downtown.
Sitting directly across from the Chateau Laurier, the building is a prime piece of real estate that currently runs an annual deficit of $2 million. Yet, the federal government seems to be balking, holding on to the building like a child denying a playmate a favorite toy.
Hall officials have said the Conference Centre is their No. 1 choice, but if they can’t get the building, they’ll look to alternate sites in Toronto. The move now hinges only on government approval.
Anybody who has been to the Hall’s current site on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds near Toronto’s waterfront will tell you it needs a higher profile locale. It’s small and out-of-the-way, and unless you know where to look, you would likely never know it existed.
The Conference Centre, on the other hand, is precisely the opposite. Everybody knows where it is, but nobody knows what goes on inside. And what is going on inside? Not much that couldn’t go on somewhere else.
The government mostly uses the building for medium-sized meetings and seminars as well as the rare first-ministers conference — all events that easily could be held elsewhere. (Try the Congress Centre, or the Chateau Laurier, or…)
So, cut the Centre loose from government control. Hall officials say all costs, from furnishings to maintenance, will be covered by corporate sponsors and won’t require any government subsidies.
Having the Hall in the middle of tourist traffic in the national capital just makes sense. With Lansdowne Park sitting empty and the Corel Centre way out in Kanata, having the Sports Hall of Fame in a prime downtown location would bring attention to Canadian sports in a way that is not possible right now. If it’s done right, it could be another great draw and, after all, not every tourist wants to visit art galleries and museums.
Plus, the building wouldn’t have to be exclusively reserved for the Hall of Fame. Other sports organizations, such as the Canadian Olympics Association and the Special Olympics Association, have expressed interest in having their headquarters located alongside the Hall.
This is such a prized property that nothing should be done recklessly, but a Sports Hall of Fame sounds like a sure winner.