Whatâ€™s going to happen to the old Copps Coliseum signs?

The city is looking for ways to protect Copps Coliseum's legacy — and if all goes well, you might get to own a little piece of history.

Staffers will soon pull together all the signs that have graced the stadium's walls since it opened almost three decades ago. But it's not just for nostalgia's sake — it's also about preserving the work of a famous Canadian designer whose designs were all over the walls of a Hamilton sport and performing arts mainstay.

City staff will be taking inventory of everything with the Copps logo, cleaning it, and then figuring out just what to do with all that memorabilia, says John Hertel, the city's director of finance and revenue generation.

"It's kind of like moving your house — you don't realize how much stuff you have until you move," Hertel told CBC Hamilton. "But it really is an important part of the city's history, and maybe there'll be some form of citizen participation for the signs."

That decision is still a little ways off, though. Once everything has been catalogued, the Copps family has first dibs on signs. Then it's likely that other pieces will be given to the Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame and the city's archives.

The old Copps Coliseum giant C was taken down last week. (Adam Carter/CBC)

But Hertel wouldn't rule out an Honest Ed's-style sale where the general public could come and buy signs for their own homes. Hundreds of people lined up in Toronto to snatch one of those signs from the iconic Toronto retailer last month.

"For the city and citizens, Copps is iconic," Hertel said. "It's a really important part of the city's history."

Copps Coliseum first opened in 1985, and was named after Hamilton mayor, Victor Copps. Its original moniker wasn't quite that short and pithy though, says Jeremy Kramer, the principal and creative director of Kramer Design Associates Limited, whose firm designed the signage. It was almost christened the Victor K. Copps Trade Centre and Arena.

"That was a bit of a mouthful," Kramer said. "We thought it unlikely the public would be saying all that." Thankfully, Kramer successfully pushed for Copps Coliseum instead.

The giant Copps C that could be seen on the outside of the building was designed by renowned graphic artist Burton Kramer, who also designed the distinctive sunburst 1974 CBC logo, which was made up of a stylized C radiating out in all directions.

Burton Kramer has long retired from the design world, but his firm's work can still be seen all over Southern Ontario. Kramer Design designed the Royal Botanical Gardens rock garden signage, as well as the signs for the soon to be revealed Tim Horton's field at the old Ivor Wynne Stadium site.

Jeremy Kramer says when you work in advertising, you know there's a decent chance your work might not live forever. "You hope that these names become meaningful, longstanding names — but that's not always the case," he said. "We live in a time when corporate sponsorship and the naming of stadiums are common."

Still, Kramer is hoping that the city can step in and make sure the Copps signage doesn't fade into obscurity, now that the building has officially been renamed the FirstOntario Centre.

"It would be nice if the city found a permanent home for these pieces for their historical significance."