It’ll be curl famous
Olympic sport’s 1st dedicated NYC rink comes to Kingsbridge
THE Bronx is swept up in Curling.
The U.S. Olympic curling teams may have been knocked out of contention this week, but future sweepers might have better luck going for the gold when the Bronx becomes home to the city’s first indoor curling rink, The News has learned.
The borough will welcome the only year-round indoor ice curling facility on the East Coast, as part of the recently approved Kingsbridge National Ice Center, officials said.
“We feel there is a great opportunity to grow the sport of curling in our area,” hockey leg- end Mark Messier, CEO of the Kingsbridge National Ice Center, told The News.
“We will be a state-of-the-art curling facility, and everything we need to make it that,” added Messier, who claims to follow the sport, which is reminiscent of shuffleboard but is played on ice. “Kingsbridge will deliver.”
The quirky — and slippery — game has been on the rise since it was restored as an official Olympic medal sport in 1998, after a 56-year hiatus from the Games.
It originated in Scotland in the 1500s, but the sliding of tea kettle-shaped “stones” across sheets of ice has recently gained popularity in the U.S.
“I think it’s going to be the cornerstone of curling development in the United States,” said Dean Roth, of CURLNYC, a partnership between KNIC Partners, the ice center’s developer, and the curlers, Granite & Ice Inc. “We anticipate having 2,000 curlers in the Bronx.”
But despite its reemergence over the past 15 years, New Yorkers have been slow to adopt it in the five boroughs.
“It was definitely a little differ- ent,” John Paccione, a tv/video technician from Glen Oaks, Queens, said of watching his first bonspiel, or curling tournament.
The 28-year-old began playing the sport last May and says he’s been hooked ever since. He’s now a member of the Long Island Curling Club. “It’s definitely very social,” Paccione said. “People just have fun doing it.”
There are 11 official curling clubs in New York State, including the Long Island group and the Ardsley Curling Club in Westchester. Only six of the clubs have “dedicated ice,” a facility with ice that is only used for curling.
A typical curling sheet is 15 feet wide and 140 feet long with circular targets, known as the “house,” at either end.
There is currently only one other 12-month ice curling facility in the U.S. — the Four Seasons Curling Club at the Ice House in Blaine, Minn. Once completed, in 2017, the ninerink Kingsbridge National Ice Center will be the largest ice-sports facility in North America.
“Will we have an impact on the 2018 Olympics in South Korea?” Roth asked. “Probably not. But we will going forward.”