Race on for Welsh Sports Hall of Fame

Oct 28 2007 by Catherine Evans, Wales On Sunday

AFTER all the talk, it’s now time for action.

Our campaign to find a permanent home for the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame has gone from a crawl to a sprint – as the Welsh Assembly Government finally cracked the starting pistol.

A few months ago, the campaign seemed to have struck a stalemate.

Former minister for sport Alun Pugh supported the idea, but refused to fund the project until a business plan was submitted.

Now his successor, newly-appointed minister for heritage Rhodri Glyn Thomas, has set the wheels in motion after meeting with the Hall of Fame committee’s chairman Lord Jack Brooks and secretary Geoff Bray.

He has pledged to:

n help the committee create a business plan;

n assist the Hall of Fame’s bid for lottery funding, and advise them on how to bring our sporting artefacts to life through digitization.

n explore other ways in which the Welsh Assembly Government and the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame committee can work together.

Speaking after his meeting with the Hall of Fame committee members on Thursday, Mr Thomas said: “The Welsh Sports Hall of Fame collection is a unique one and I would like to see more of the collection available for the people of Wales to view.

“I’ve agreed that the Welsh Assembly Government will assist the trustees of the Hall of Fame in developing a business case, and also advise them on digitization of articles from the collection.”

After years of disappointment, Geoff Bray, from the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame, was delighted with the positive outcome of the meeting.

“The collection contains many irreplaceable treasures, encapsulating much of the history of Welsh sport and its educational value cannot be underestimated,” he said.

Conservative AM Paul Davies, the shadow minister for culture, Welsh language and sport commended the new development.

“This is a very important first step towards establishing a permanent reminder of all the successes that both individuals and teams from Wales have had over the years.”

When Wales on Sunday spearheaded the campaign to find a home for the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame earlier this year, hundreds of you signed our petition, pledging your support to give Wales’ sporting legends pride of place.

Many readers suggested the Hall of Fame should be housed within the Millennium Stadium, Liberty Stadium in Swansea or the Old Library in Cardiff.

The Hall of Fame’s collection of sporting memorabilia is squeezed into the Museum of Welsh Life at St Fagans in Cardiff and spent the past year in cardboard boxes during the museum’s refurbishment.