Thanks to grants from the Federal Government's Canada 150 Community Infrastructure program, as well as some money from the Provincial Governments Community Facility Enhancement Program, the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame was able to expand and upgrade their collection facility last year.

Items were carefully moved off site and sports memorabilia donations were put on hold for the past ten months, as the collection rooms were upgraded to better house the 15,000 plus artefacts in their collection.

Coordinator with the Hall of Fame Megan Hanson says they will make use of some new and old technology in one of their exhibits set to open this year.

“It’s called The Games we Play, and it’s based on video games… the early video games that existed were sporting based, a lot of them, so we will have all different gaming systems coming up in February just to show how games have evolved and the fan experience has evolved over time.”

Collections and Exhibit Coordinator Breanna Suk says the construction was a major undertaking, but now they are more than prepared for the future.

“To complete the project we moved the entire collection, all 15,000 artifacts, off site for a couple of months, and then it was all brought back in with the installation of a second floor. We gained about 50% storage space…all the artifacts are back in their proper places, they’ve all been put away again, and now we have room to grow.”

Hanson says they will also have an exhibit dedicated to the Winter Olympics to coincide with the 2018 games. 

They are also partnering with the Alberta Deaf Sports Association this month, to work on a showcase that brings awareness to a few of the sports and athletes in the deaf community.

The renovations cost approximately $175,000.