FRISCO — Djorn Buchholz has a one-of-a-kind job as executive director of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. There's a lot to keep him busy between now and the joint grand opening and induction ceremony on Oct. 20. He recently talked about his job, the sport and what's planned for the south end of Frisco's Toyota Stadium.

But first, some background information. The "d" in his first name is silent. So is the "c" in his last name. Djorn Buchholz, pronounced Jorn Bue-holes, grew up playing soccer. Much of his 16-year career has been behind the scenes working with tournaments and teams. The 38-year-old most recently worked in Austin as a consultant, which included running the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament, held in July in San Antonio.

When he arrived in Frisco, a large sign across the south end of Toyota Stadium announced, "Future home of the National Soccer Hall of Fame Museum." But research shows people visit a museum only 2.4 times in their life, he said. The sign didn't last long.

Why did that sign need to go?

Djorn Buchholz is the executive director of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. (Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer)

"Sure, we're going to have 400 artifacts in there that tell the history of our game, but we also want to talk about the future of the game as well, and that's where we get into a lot of very cool AV [audiovisual], virtual reality, gesture technology and digital touch screens that are going to blow people away. For me, that's no longer a museum. That's an experience."

How much of the museum will be . . . ?

"Experience!" he cut in. "I'm going to put a little swear jar above my desk. If anybody uses the word museum, they've got to put a quarter in it."

What do you want people to know about the Hall of Fame?

"This is the Cooperstown, the Canton of soccer in their backyard," he said referring to the Halls of Fame for professional baseball and football. "And to an extent, it's going to be better than those because it's built into a stadium where you can come and experience an amazing Hall of Fame and then go out and watch the beautiful game right there."

Get a glimpse of what's in store with this virtual tour of the National Soccer Hall of Fame:

More than 80,000 artifacts have been in storage in a Hillsborough, N.C., basement warehouse since the soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, N.Y., shut down in 2010. What did you find when you visited the facility with U.S. Soccer's official historian, Jim Trecker?

"It's not as cataloged as we would like it to be," he said of the row upon row of boxes. "I'd get on a ladder and just pull down a box and just be pulling out stuff. We found this little medal from like 1860-something that was from like a New York soccer team that won its local men's amateur league. It's the oldest thing we found."

The history of soccer goes back much further than that, right?

"We need to get rid of the perception that soccer in this country started with the inception of Major League Soccer in 1996," he said. "There's history dating back to the 1600s."

This is the game ball from the 2010 World Cup match between the United States and Algeria. (Valerie Wigglesworth / Staff Writer)

Buchholz brought several artifacts back to Frisco for display, ranging from the jersey for forward Mia Hamm, the youngest player in U.S. National Team history, to the game ball from his favorite moment — when the USA's Landon Donovan scored a gold in the final seconds of a 2010 World Cup match against Algeria.

How special is that game?

"I just got goose bumps thinking about this," Buchholz said, recommending people watch that storybook ending here.

What's the ultimate goal of the National Soccer Hall of Fame?

"This is a unique opportunity that we've got now to rebrand ourselves and rebrand the stadium and the experience inside of it and the atmosphere."