The errors made on the Gretzky monument have left many offended and hoping that the mistake will soon be fixed.

The sculpture that sits outside the Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre at 254 North Park St. was revealed to have inaccurate names inscribed on its Stanley Cup. The names included a variation of names such as Chris Haslam, a Canadian skateboarder, and Muddy Waters, an American Blues musician.

“It’s disappointing. It’s something that the people of the city have done for the city, and someone is trying to make a mockery out of it. It’s awful,” said Walter Gretzky, father of Wayne Gretzky. “We haven’t told him yet, but Wayne would be disappointed just like me.”

Gretzky explained his disappointment when he said, “there’s only one of those exact statues in all of Canada and someone does that?”

Gretzky said that the foreman of the project should gather his employees to ensure that an error of this sort will not happen again and review the consequences. “Work could go to another company instead of them,” said Gretzky. “I hope he has enough sense to get his employees together and talk with them about it.”

The names, excluding the few honorary people involved in the monument’s creation, were not intended to be seen as individual names. An employee of the studio was asked to “Greek” the names on the trophy; this employee wrote actual names with the intention of them never being read closely since the cup is approximately four metres off the ground.

“I regret that I didn’t catch the error. All legible names not intended to be on the cup will be turned into Greek promptly,” said Brad Oldham, the Texan based artist, in an email statement. “We have set new protocols within my studio to ensure this type of mistake does not happen again.”

Oldham mentions that he has hired MST Bronze Limited from Etobicoke, Ont., to “restore the trophy to its initial design.”

Outside of Gretzky and hockey fans, Brantford locals are among those who are offended by the monument’s inaccuracy, as this monument is expected to be a tourist attraction in Brantford.

“What if people come to see this, and they notice the names are wrong? They’re going to go home pretty darn upset too,” said Sandy Matthews, a Brantford native, who was one of the offended citizens.

Matthews said regardless that it was supposed to be “chicken scratch”, it wasn’t. The names were large enough for the general public to read, and therefore it only made sense that the public would get upset.

“It’s offended many people, especially hockey fans,” said Matthews. “They look at the hockey trophy that means a lot to fans and it has actors, actresses and people who have no affiliation with hockey whatsoever.”

MST Bronze Limited, the company responsible

for the sculpture outside the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ont., will be correcting the statue outside of the Gretzky Centre.

“The company who is fixing the monument should have been the company who did the whole sculpture in the first place, in my opinion,” added Matthews. “Right now it appears like the artist is handing his problems off to someone else.”

Oldham anticipates a crew from MST Bronze Limited to correct the stature shortly.

Oldham ended his email statement with “I extend my sincere apologies for this oversight.”