By Brian Blom
The dream of converting Ottawa’s old train station into a new sports hall of fame seemed doomed from the day the idea first emerged. Now the dream is officially over.
And while the idea of bringing a public attraction to the nation’s capital is not altogether dead, it’ll be back to the drawing board for the president of the non-profit group that oversees the project.
“It will be here,” Phil Denyes told the Ottawa Citizen earlier this month after the federal government officially announced it wasn’t going to pick up the $13-million tab for the project. “I just don’t have a location yet. But we are going to build a world-class facility. And it can’t be outside of the city centre.”
Plans to transplant the feeble museum from its location at Toronto’s Exhibition Place to the Conference Centre building on the corner of Wellington and Colonel By Drive emerged back in 1996, and critics immediately began to question the enormous costs of restoring the old building.
It was a plan that was destined to fail.
The scale of the project, notably its fat price tag, posed the greatest hurdle. It was to cost $13 million to repair the old station and that doesn’t include the $65-million forecast for the
development of the new hall itself.
Supporters of the project were given a boost in 1999 when the federal government decided it no longer needed the building for conferences and turned it over for use as a sports hall of fame.
However, the deal began to unravel last year over who would pick up the tab for the renovations for the Beaux-Arts building, which opened to travelers in 1912.
“The deal is off unless those who want to open a sports hall for fame can very shortly come up with the money for repairs to the building,” then-public works minister Alfonso Gagliano said in January 2000.
While his successor, Ottawa-area MP Don Boudria, brought new hope to the project, it was a pipe dream to believe the federal government would pay for the repairs.
With its current agenda devoted to national defence and border security, a $13-million grant for a new sports hall of fame seems unlikely.
And it’s shame. Such a facility would mean more now than ever before. In the aftermath of our most decorated Winter Olympics, a new facility to honour our athletes would be rewarding, especially for the City of Ottawa.
Located on one of the most prestigious properties in the city, across the street from the Parliament buildings and nestled at the mouth of the Rideau Canal, a hall at the old train
station would have drawn hundreds of thousands of tourists each year.
There is no current sports hall of fame of any kind in the city. Such an exhibit would complement the rich collection of museums we already have in the downtown core.
But instead of dwelling on the demise of the Conference Centre proposal, we should remain confident that the sports hall of fame is still a possibility for
Ottawa.
Organizers must stop relying federal government support, and focus on getting more corporate sponsors on board. Perhaps even the athletes could be targeted for their support, both moral and financial.
It’s important that we recognize Canadian athletes not only as superstars, but as a part of our nation’s heritage.