Brier is slip, sliding away
Curling Canada says it’s likely Kelowna will not host the 2021 event
Plans to hold the 2021 Tim Horton’s Brier in Kelowna have been all but dashed due to the pandemic.
The tournament, featuring Canada’s best male curlers, was to have been staged at Prospera Place next March.
But Curling Canada will likely have to follow the lead of hockey and basketball by using a fan-less, hub city approach in order to salvage showcase events like the Brier and the Scotties Tournament of Hearts this season.
Gerry Peckham, Curling Canada’s high-performance director, said the federation is “definitely getting into the deep end of the pool” regarding the possibility of a hub city concept.
“In all honesty, I think that is arguably our final card to play as it relates to our more major events,” he said, “so whether that be a Brier, Scotties, worlds, Canadian mixed doubles, Canada Cup, that kind of an array of potential events.”
A spokesman for Prospera Place said Friday the organization hadn’t received any official word from Curling Canada and couldn’t comment on the prospect of the Brier not being staged as planned in Kelowna.
But Jock Tyre, manager of the Kelowna Curling Club, said he’d heard plans were already being developed by Curling Canada to host the Brier and other high-profile events without fans in Calgary next spring.
The curling club would not have been used for any formal Brier-related events, but its members would have been helped out with volunteering at the prestigious tournament, Tyre said.
“What I’m hearing is that the local organizing committee isn’t doing anything right now,” Tyre said. “I think the most likely scenario is that Kelowna will be offered the Brier in 2022.”
The Scotties, Brier and world championships are traditionally well-attended competitions that enjoy a weeklong festival-type atmosphere. A full social calendar is built around the curling schedule with a neighbouring party facility helping to boost already raised hoopla levels around town.
In other words, expect host cities to get a proper opportunity when things return to normal.
“None of those host cities signed on to hold a marginalized, compromised, non-sellout kind of an event,” Peckham said, “so we’ve already kind of waved the white flag from that perspective.”
Specific estimates weren’t available, but Peckham said there would be a “substantial” financial repercussion to having a fan-less Season of Champions experience.
However, the opportunity to maintain a profile and continue strong relations with various partners, sponsors and athletes makes the pursuit of other options worth it, he said.
“We’ve had a long-standing relationship with the television audience and TV itself and we’ve also collected a fabulous group of sponsors both at the national level and at the local level,” Peckham said.
“So maintaining those relationships and continuing to work together and continuing to find a way to put the curling product out there is very motivating, so we’re looking for ways to make that all happen.”