Kingston wins 2020 Tim Hortons Brier bid

It’s official, in 2020 the Tim Hortons Brier is coming to Kingston, Ont.

Although there were reports of a successful bid for the Canadian men’s curling championships earlier in the week, on Thursday, Curling Canada officials announced Kingston’s winning bid at the city’s Leon’s Centre, the arena where the championships will take place from Feb. 29 to March 8 in 2020.

According to the city of Kingston, the Brier could bring 130,000 spectators to the area and inject about $15 million into the local economy.

It has been just under a year since the city of Kingston put in the bid to host the 2020 championships, and at one point it looked like the city might have lost out on the opportunity.

Back in March, advance ticket deposits for the Brier were relatively low in Kingston. Ticket deposits are one of the criteria that help Curling Canada choose the winning bid.

After an aggressive campaign from Tourism Kingston, deposits on advance tickets soared.

The city’s tourism branch had previously set a goal to sell 2,020 $50 deposits for tickets to the curling championship, but according to Michael Beleza from Tourism Kingston, there were around 2,100 by early June.

George Cooke of the Curling Canada board of governors spoke at the Leon’s Centre on Thursday morning. He said along with the interest in advanced tickets, when Kingston hosted the Scottie’s Tournament — the women’s curling championships — in 2013, the city also showed its enthusiasm for the sport.

This will be the first time since 1957 that Kingston will host the men’s curling championship.