SPECIAL DELIVERY
The Lethbridge Curling Club is ready to welcome the world to its house.
The club and its new facility on the westside will be the site of the 2017 World Mixed Doubles and World Senior Curling Championships April 22-29 and showcasing 41 countries.
With the event exactly a month away Wednesday afternoon, the club held a media day, complete with some Brier-calibre pointers on the sport from Team Alberta third Darren Moulding, who invited those interested to get in the hack and get the feel for delivering a few rocks as well as the unique rules for doubles curling.
As the mixed and seniors championships draws near, an international event currently taking place is amping up interest locally with the World Women’s Curling Championship taking place in Beijing, China.
“We’ve had strong response so far to the full-event passes, it’s been better than expected, which is thrilling,” said Mike Mulroy, president of the Lethbridge Curling Club and the co-chair of the organizing committee.
“We’re finding that each of these championship events that are on TV now is spiking interest on a weekly basis where we can get a few more ticket orders coming in. I’m attributing it to the fact they’re seeing it on TV.”
Another key is the club moving to the ATB Centre.
“The timing is perfect and this is one of the things that drew us to the event three-and-a-half years ago when we took a look at it,” said Mulroy. “The first thing was knowing we were going to have this facility. Many times, this doesn’t happen under one roof where they have to have two facilities.
“Although we’re on the outskirts of the city and the logistics are a bit of a challenge, we’re still finding that we will, with the city’s support, put on a fantastic show for the fans and the competitors. The competitors are the big ticket here. There are 400 competitors and coaches coming and those are the people we have to really thrill with this event.”
Mayor Chris Spearman noted the world-class event coming to southern Alberta.
“I hope our residents and curling fans take the opportunity to take it in. It’s a unique sport in curling and a different way of playing the game. This is the last qualifying tournament before the Olympics in Korea. So we hope that people will take it in. I attended the high school championships three weeks ago and people were delighted with the facility. It’s a great chance to show off the ATB Centre.”
Full event packages are for sale online at lethbridgecurlingclub.com up to the first day of the event.
Starting the day of the event, at-the-door day passes will be available. A day pass gets the ticket buyer in to see all the draws for the day.