Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame showcases new equipment

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Oh look, a building. A building with a sports simulator!/ Brett Nielsen

Oh look, a building. A building with a sports simulator!/ Brett Nielsen

New multi-sport simulator used to promote venue

The Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame (SSHF), to coincide with RBC Sport Day in Canada, has announced a new competition – dubbed the Virtual Cup – that they hope will add to the festivities.

According to SSHF communications director Autumn McDowell, the goal of the event is two-fold: To promote RBC’s event, as well as to highlight the hall’s ownership of the simulator.

“The idea came about because on Nov. 21 ,it’s actually RBC Sport Day in Canada, so we knew we wanted to do something for that, and we also knew we wanted to showcase our new simulator. We haven’t had the simulator for very long, just about four or five months; lots of people don’t even know we have it, and the people that do know we have it don’t really know what it’s all about, so we wanted to find some way to combine both of those and showcase everything.”

The simulator, a product of Visual Sports (a Vaughn, Ontario company that specializes in this sort of equipment) is being used to create a competition that celebrates sport. The device includes a total of nine sports, along with games related to special occasions, such as zombie dodgeball to coincide with Halloween.

The contest is made up of three separate contests that span three weeks in total, culminating in a final showdown on Nov. 21, RBC Sport Day in Canada. The first week (Nov. 2-6) was focused on basketball. Nov. 9-14 will see football take centre stage, and the last full week of the Virtual Cup will see competitors’ baseball skills being put to the test. The Saturday that concludes the competition will, the SSHF hopes, include some special guests for the winners of the particular weeks to test themselves against.

McDowell says that the addition of the simulator is an attempt by the hall to increase its interactivity.

“It was just something that we really wanted to [do to] enhance our visitor experience and make it more interactive. So we’ve added the simulator. We now have iPads in the halls, and we have monitors in the halls, too.”

The Virtual Cup won’t be the only time that the simulator will be used, McDowell notes, as the device will be incorporated into the SSHF’s upcoming birthday celebrations.

“In 2016, we’re actually turning fifty years old. Our official birthday will be Oct. 31 of 2016. So, for the fiftieth year, we are planning on doing twelve months [with] twelve events and lots of them will involve the simulator. We also use the simulator for part of our education programming.”

In terms of price, five dollars allows for unlimited use of the simulator in any given week. Individual memberships come at a cost of $35, while a family membership means an investment of $50.
Now, only one question remains: who will win the Virtual Cup?

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