The sight of a neglected Maple Leaf Gardens and word that building owner Loblaws wants to gut the building to make way for a supermarket touched a nerve with hockey fans in Toronto. But Loblaws says its plan will preserve the hockey shrine's integrity.

"It's an historic building. To take it back and turn it into something like that, it's a shame," one man told CTV's Tom Hayes on Tuesday.

Mayor David Miller echoed people's concerns on Tuesday.

"It's unfortunate. I think everybody would like to see this remain a hockey rink and be used for hockey," Miller said.

Since the Maple Leafs left the Gardens in 1999, the building has been in a slow state of decline.

On the outside, not much has changed. The building is a designated heritage site and in any development the outside walls and roof must be preserved. Inside, Maple Leaf Gardens is collecting dust.

Loblaws wants to change that by gutting the interior and turning it into two levels of parking and two levels of retail space.

But news of a supermarket in the hockey shrine caused worry among hockey fans. They want to see the hockey and cultural heritage of the building preserved.

Loblaws responded on Tuesday, saying they will help preserve the memorabilia and history of a redeveloped Maple Leaf Gardens.

Company spokesperson, and former city mayor David Crombie, said he has received several phone calls on the issue, one from as far away as Florida. He said Loblaws has plans for a museum.

"For sure there will be a museum," Crombie said Tuesday. "Probably at the corner of Church and Carlton (Streets)."

The museum will keep the lobby of the Gardens intact and also include rotating displays of memorabilia. It will stretch from the lobby to the south east corner of the building. But an ice surface is not part of Loblaws' plan.

Crombie added that there will be memories for people visiting the renovated Maple Leaf Gardens.

"The history of the place is not only hockey, though that's mainly it, but almost anything that happened of significance from 1931 on happened at the Gardens."

For hockey fans who want a piece of the Gardens, specifically one of the thousands of seats, a plan will be announced by Loblaws once all their plans for the building are finalized.

Construction on the building is expected to begin this year.

With a report from CTV's Tom Hayes