On the Canada Cup

I’ve never been a big fan of the Canada Cup, (which goes tomorrow in Cranbrook) primarily because I don’t think the Canadian Curling Association should be in the business of running cashspiels.

It’s a great event with great curling but it crosses the line as far as I’m concerned.

Years ago, the CCA said it would leave events with cash to the World Curling Tour while it concentrated on national championships. It’s one reason the CCA still won’t refer to the money it ponies up for the Brier and Scotties winners as prize money.

But when the Boys of Brooms decided to boycott the Brier back at the turn of the century, the CCA figured it would stick it to them by offering up a bucket full of money for play, perhaps hoping a few would crack and take a run at the cash. The first Canada Cup went in 2003 and Randy Ferbey collected.

It’s interesting that the purse for that first shootout was a whopping $220,000 or $110,000 per gender. It’s continued to drop since the inaugural run and this year, there’s $70,000 each for the men and the women. 

That’s still a big purse but it’s not up there with the Slams which offer up $100,000. There are even a few regular Tour events with bigger purses.

There’s also the Incredible Shrinking Field this year. It’s dropped to seven rinks from 10. I’m assuming that’s to cut down on expenses. Fewer teams means fewer games, less ice rental time, not as many lovely parting gifts and less Timbits in the locker room. And while all seven are talented, they aren’t necessarily the teams that have played the best up to this point of the 2011 campaign.

No Sherry MIddaugh, the leading women’s money winner as I tap this out. No, Cathy O, who is one of the hottest team in the land. On the men’s side there’s no Ferbey, ranked fourth in earnings, or John Epping, who sits ninth.

All this is not to say it won’t be a heck of a curling event. The 14 teams there are all very talented and the purse is still significant. All the Olympic gongs that come with winning this make it a huge spiel. Just wonder if it wouldn’t be better if it was the Tour running it.

Monday Morning Observations

Monday Morning Observations:

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Talk about both ends of the age spectrum. Young gun Braeden Moskowy won the Dekalb Superspiel over the weekend while in Switzerland, ageless wonder Andrea Schopp won an international event. Schopp won her first world championship two years before Moskowy was born.

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Speaking of young guns, Moskowy wasn’t the only one to win. Brett Gallant of Charlottetown knocked off Brad Gushue to capture the Challenge Casino de Charlevoix and a $12,000 payday. Great to see this young team play so well. Quick question: when was the last time a team from PEI won a significant WCT stop? Anyone?

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Apparently the Kiwi men’s curling team is pleased about its runner-up result at the Pacific Curling Championships. At least, that’s what I conclude from this quote from skip Peter de Boer:

“So we're really chuffed about New Zealand curling being back on the world stage."

Chuffed? That's good, right? The finish means the New Zealand team has qualified for the world championships this year and possible Olympic points.

China won both the men’s and women’s titles – no surprise there – with Korea taking silver in the women’s. Looking over the finish, though, there were only four nations entered in the women's competition: China, Japan, New Zealand and Korea. What happened to that big Olympic push?

One final note: speaking of ageless, Australia’s Hugh Milliken finished fourth. Here's the full report. 

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Next election, the voters in Toronto should make curling experience a ballot question. Two city councilors will play an exhibition match against each other as part of the High Park Curling Club’s 100^th anniversary celebration. Turns out neither Sarah Doucette nor Gord Perks have ever thrown a rock. This should be interesting.

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Seems those McCuskers can do more than just slide rocks. Christina is a round-baller with some hops according to this.

Where would you take the Brier next?

So after Edmonton, what’s next?

That’s the question I’m sure a lot of folks in the Canadian Curling Association’s bunker in Ottawa are asking these days as curling’s deep thinkers look for locations that will support a major curling event such as the Tim Hortons Brier. Of course Edmonton was announced as site for the 2013 edition. 

The problem is actually a success story. The Brier has become so big that those small arenas of days gone by just don’t cut it anymore. At least, not with any regularity. Couple that with the need to take over a major arena for some 11 days and the sites willing to welcome the event are few and far between. Hockey teams don't like those long road trips. 

So you have Edmonton and Winnipeg, two sure things. There’s Saskatoon, Regina and Calgary, which are also sure bets. And then? Well Halifax has been pretty good.

Hmmm. . . .

Ottawa? Hamilton? London? Victoria?

If you want to really walk a tightrope, what about Vancouver or Toronto? I used to think they were possibilities, but I’m less inclined these days.

The problem is you can only go back to the same watering holes so many times. The CCA has shown its willingness to go to smaller centres such as London even if the profits are quite as bountiful as say, Edmonton. But it can’t keep doing that and continue to operate in the black. The Brier (as well as the Olympic Trials) is the cash cow that keeps events such as the Mixed and the Senior alive.

So if you were in charge, to what city would you deliver the Brier? Where should it go? Where can it go?

Surprise! Edmonton gets the Brier

To the surprise of no one, the Brier is going back to Edmonton. And the Canadian Curling Association is already preparing an expansion to its vault to handle all the profits.

As Con Grikowsky states in his story, Edmonton is rightly the curling capital of the world. And Warren Hansen offers up a reason why:

“The fact teams from Edmonton, on the men’s side, have been very successful over the last 10-15 years has had a huge impact on the sport in this area,” said Warren Hansen, director of event operations for the Canadian Curling Association.

True, but come on Warren, just 10 or 15 years? Edmonton's dominance has to go back all the way to 1974, doesn't it? That was when it all started to roll. 

Seriously, there’s little doubt that when it comes to hosting big events, Edmonton is the centre of curling’s universe. It hosts the attendance record for the Brier, hosted a tremendous Olympic Trials and has has welcomed the world final too. But I might argue that when it comes to curling seeping into the culture of the community, Winnipeg might still lay claim to top spot. Or certainly a tie.

But back to Edmonton, which has owned the provincial spot in the Brier since back when Ed Lukowich was chewing on straw. With Ferbey, Martin and Koe all dominating for a period, it’s probably a good bet that the 2013 Brier will feature an Edmonton rink. I know, I’m going out on a limb there, right Ferbey?

“I’ll go on record and say it’ll probably be an Edmonton team at that Brier,” said Ferbey. “There’s still two great teams here. Koe’s still playing competitively. Martin’s still playing competitively. They ain’t getting any weaker than they were a couple of years ago."

It will also be the last Brier for one of the city’s own – if he makes it – Kevin Martin. He’s said he’ll retire after 2014 and the Olympics, should he make that again. That would put the date for hanging up his slider February 2014, meaning he wouldn’t play the 2014 Brier in March. Now if he doesn't make the Olympics? Perhaps he might change his timing. But 2013 would certainly would be a great Brier farewell for probably the best to ever toss a rock. 

With an Edmonton team in the fold, attendance records are possible. In Curtis Stock's piece in the Journal, Hansen even points to a number, saying he'd like to get to 300,000. The current record is 281,985. That really shouldn't be a problem. 

Tips from Cheryl

***  I will now dominate the Thursday night men’s league thanks to the info from Cheryl Bernard in this radio interview. 

*** A great story about the re-birth of the curling club in Corner Brook, NL. They'll be stepping on to the ice any day now in the new facility. George Spracklin, the club president, outlines just how happy he'll be not only with the new club, but to see the old one go. 

“We no longer have roof problems like we had in the old place and we no longer have a dinosaur of a plant that you went into in October, turned it on and said a prayer and hoped that it would start and wouldn’t cost you $4,000 or $5,000,” he said.

Middaugh wins another one

*** Who’s the hottest team in the land? It’s the Sherry Middaugh rink, which captured the SunLife Classic yesterday for its fifth win of the season (even though the Post says it’s only the third). You can read the details here. Can’t wait to see her team in action at the Canada Cup. Oh wait a minute . . . .

 *** The life of a drawmaster is never easy. Doug Graham in theKingston Whig-Standard outlines how Pierre Charette is juggling the draw for the BDO Canadian Open in Kingston.

 *** The first line in this story says it all.

*** The answer to the trivia question that will be asked years from now is Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Nunavut and Yukon. Those are the first four teams to drop into the relegation that will take place next year ahead of the Canadian Mixed. That event and the Seniors are being tested to see if relegation will work at major curling events. It’s all because the combined Territories team doesn’t sit well with the three separate territories which each want its own entry. But 14 teams doesn’t work, hence the relegation.

Do you think this is good for curling or not? What's the best way to accommodate all the teams? Or should all the teams get in? Would you watch a Brier in which -- horror of horrors -- a team such as Manitoba, Alberta or Ontario was not playing due to relegation?

Do we really need the Mixed?

In case you were busy picking the lint from between your toes or some other worthwhile endeavour, you may have missed the fact that the Canadian Mixed is on in Sudbury.

Didn’t realize that? I’m sure you’re not alone. The Canadian Mixed is, in my humble opinion, the least important of our national curling championships.

Why?

No one plays competitive mixed. There are no mixed cashspiels on the World Curling Tour. And I’d wager that most teams kind of slap their squads together after their men’s and women’s competitive seasons end.

While there are some talented curlers who are playing this year and have played in the past, it’s the sweep-and-giggle we all enjoy at our club on Friday night on a bigger scale.

Now there are some good things about this event for sure. Some of the northern territories get their own entry. That’s good. And it goes to areas that might not be able to host a Brier or Scotties.

But if you were going to save some money and lighten the load on the operations staff of the CCA, this might be the one event that gets snuffed out.