From Las Vegas, Nev., to London, Ont.
Some of the best curlers in the world will be at Western Fair Sports Centre in a little less than a year for the World Financial Group Continental Cup.
The event puts North America up against six rinks representing the World in a Ryder Cup-style format. It will act as a final tune-up for many of the competitors before they head to South Korea and the 2018 Olympic Games.
The championship has been held since 2002, predominantly in Western Canada. For three of the past four years, it has been staged in Las Vegas.
Peter Inch, the chair of the board of governors for Curling Canada made the announcement and then talked about what it took to initially turn the selection committee’s attention north again.
“I had some conversations with the sponsor in Vegas and a I guaranteed that we would sell the event out and I guaranteed him that it would be as loud as the Vancouver Olympics. So, when we started looking at facilities … we knew we could make it noisy and that the fans would be right on top of the players if we brought it to Western Fair and that’s why we chose it as the venue.”
Cheryl Finn, director of Sport Tourism from Tourism London says the experience that London has hosting events and its connections to the curling world put the city on the radar as a host.
“The fact that it has been in Las Vegas and the fact that Curling Canada reached out to us, speaks to what we have done in terms of sport hosting. We obviously have a great connection through Peter and through our host organizing committee.”
North America and the world compete in team events, mixed doubles events and skins competitions, each worth a set number of points.
“It’s very non-traditional,” says Curling Canada CEO and Western University graduate, Katherine Henderson. “It brings out good, friendly rivalries and hard-core rivalries between countries and teams. It isn’t really a qualifier for an Olympic event or something like that, but the athletes still put a lot of pressure on themselves, but they still have a lot of fun down there.”
North America will come in as the defending champion, having won the past five titles.
The Continental Cup will be held from Jan. 11-14 at Western Fair Sports Centre and will join the 2006 Scotties and 2011 Tim Horton’s Brier as major curling events that have come to the Forest City.