Reason to celebrate

When nearly 200 people show up to a news conference, there is usually a palpable vibe in the air.

Such was the case at Centre 200 yesterday where CBRM’s worst-kept secret ¬ Sydney’s successful bid to host the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, aka the Canadian women’s curling championship ¬ was officially announced to smiling faces and numerous ovations.

Glace Bay MLA Geoff MacLellan even caught a middle-of-the-night flight from NAFTA talks in Washington, D.C., to take in the announcement. Now that’s dedication.

It will be the fourth time that Nova Scotia has hosted the event, previous dates including 1965, 1977 and 1992, but the first for Cape Breton.

Curling Canada and Nova Scotia Curling Association officials saluted the bid’s professionalism and lauded the “team effort” displayed by the local bid committee, CBRM, the province, Membertou, Centre 200, local businesses and local curling fans.

Even the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles received a nod for agreeing to vacate the building for a week-and-a-half to make way for the curling crowd. Suffice to say our popular hockey team will be facing the road trip from hell.

And a poignant moment came when the late Dave Muise, who spearheaded an unsuccessful bid to host the Scotties in 2018, was acknowledged for the groundwork he did with Curling Canada ¬ work that no doubt helped pace the way for the successful 2019 bid. Muise died earlier this week.

Much was made of the more than 900 event passes that were sold, too, an amount that apparently made the decision to grant hosting rights to Sydney an easy one.

But what if there were no decision to be made at all? What if the local bid was the only one on the table? What if 900 event passes sold is actually a very modest number?

It’s difficult to say because Curling Canada officials won’t say who else was in the running, or if anyone else was in the running. Perhaps they play their cards close to the vest in order to spur potential host cities to show real commitment as opposed to simply kicking a few tires.

Anyhow, the mystery competitors no longer matter. The only thing that does is that a national championship is coming to CBRM, that it will no doubt generate an economic impact of several million dollars during the normally slow mid-winter tourist season and that with 66 hours of coast-tocoast television coverage planned it will serve as a wonderful opportunity to attract many more visitors in the months and years to follow.

It will also provide some great entertainment with many of the best curling in the world coming to town and possibly increase membership in our two local curling clubs. That’s something worth crowing about.

With a nod, then, to Dave Muise, we’re ‘just sayin.’