HAI Celebrates the History of Soccer with the Grand Opening of the new National Soccer Hall of Fame

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: November 7, 2018
Contact: Anne Strong
Telephone: (301) 279-9697

The National Soccer Hall of Fame (NSHOF) opens to the public at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, part of a $58 million stadium renovation. After seven years without a home, the new state-of-the-art facility highlights the history of soccer and salutes soccer legends with interactive exhibits, multimedia displays, and iconic memorabilia. It also serves as the home for annual Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, starting with this year’s celebration October 20 through 21, 2018. The NSHOF opened to the public on November 2nd.

HAI served on the content team for the new museum as subcontractor to leading exhibit design firm HealyKohler Design. Working closely with HealyKohler, along with members of U.S. Soccer, HAI helped create the overall storyline presenting the history of soccer and the sport today.

“Telling the history of a sport has inherent challenges,” noted Carlyn Swaim, VP of exhibits services at HAI. “As soccer continues to grow in popularity in the U.S., major milestones are occurring on a regular basis—and we needed to make sure we captured these recent events. On top of this, fans understandably have strong opinions about what events are seminal to the history of the sport.” To address these issues, the content team maintained a high degree of open collaboration throughout the design and fabrication process.

During the initial phases, HAI historians worked to develop the organizing themes and major storylines. As the design formalized, they located display images, helped select artifacts that would enhance the story, wrote artifact labels, and created panel text for final exhibits. To identify storylines, photographs, and artifacts to display, historians researched the extensive holdings of the U.S. Soccer Archives, supplemented with research at repositories such as the Library of Congress and ISI Photos.

The resulting exhibits feature facial recognition technology and virtual reality to bring visitors a one-of-a-kind interactive experience. The exhibits also house hundreds of rare artifacts from soccer’s history, including FIFA Women’s World Cup™ Trophies, an autographed Pelé Cosmos jersey, and much more.

Toyota Stadium is also the home of Major League Soccer team FC Dallas, making NSHOF the first major league sports hall of fame to be built within a stadium. The original Hall of Fame was located in Oneonta, NY from 1979 to 2010 and had been without a home since the Oneonta location closed.