The state of curling in Saskatchewan: It looks pretty from the top

People would come from surrounding communities or even travel across provincial lines to take in the festivities. Not only did this bring great curling, create local legends, and help build the game, it was also able to boost local economies and give small towns something to smile and boast about.

Now, declining numbers and empty rinks seem to be the norm around Saskatchewan’s smaller communities.

Declining membership, declining interest, bonspiels that go unnoticed, and ultimately, the death of these once-flourishing community hangouts.

CurlSask oversees the sport in the province, and gives these small-town rinks, all the way up to the top-ranked, high performance curlers within the province, a voice.

Administrators admit they saw a big decline begin about five years ago, but decided to do something about it.

They hired on and created a new position, focusing directly on getting discussions going with every curling club within the province. Numbers have fluctuated, but remained stagnant.

A big emphasis was put on evolving the game and getting younger generations involved in the sport, while at the same time, focusing on their top-tier, high performance curlers and rinks, such as Robyn Silvernagle and Kirk Muyers.

Ashley Howard, the executive director of the organization, as well as a member of Saskatchewan’s 2016 Scotties Tournament of Hearts representatives, knows how much curling has changed over the years.

“Folks were having a drink, or smoking on the ice, but that has all changed,” she said. “I give a lot of credit to the Olympic games for changing those mentalities.”

She said it’s different when the high-performance athletes show up to the rink; it now starts in the gym and with new training regiments, all designed not fall behind the broad talent pool across the globe.

Athletes are training to continue to compete on the highest level, and with that, they’re also working on other means of curling. Mixed doubles has emerged as a way to keep interest in the game. It’s faster-paced, less rocks, less ends, less sweepers, and involves different strategy.

But what does that mean for the grassroots players?

It is emerging as more and more relevant on the provincial stage, with a new U18 playdown coming this year. Developing curlers, not just as a foursome, but as a twosome is becoming more accessible and easier to do. Finding a foursome and playing through on the traditional side was never easy. It takes finding four curlers, all with the same goals, aspirations, and schedules to come together to look to find that next step.

Howard says, this is an opportunity for the taking in small towns.

“What a great opportunity to start a new league, put it on that second draw of the evening,” she said. “Just get on the ice and have some fun.”

The underlying problem that continues to pop up is people aren’t there to start it all.

From CurlSask’s standpoint, the issue isn’t there. They say their numbers have remained the same, but when it comes down to underlying numbers – the actual numbers from these grassroots curling clubs, Howard said they’re declining.

“We’ve seen a decline over a long period of time for the number of clubs in the province. Some small-town clubs in the province have closed. Over the past few numbers of years, our numbers have remained stable, both in numbers of participants and curling clubs,” she said.

Howard said they are at the end of their decline, from their numbers, and are starting to trend back up. Despite the increase, it’s still a struggle for community rinks to stay open.

Howard said CurlSask has $200,000 allocated to help these struggling curling clubs and their doors are always open.

Keeping the doors open is crucial, and Howard couldn’t dive into the actual cost of day to day operations, as every curling club is different. With fundraisers, bonspiels, membership and bars becoming the baseline for actual revenue for rinks, losing out on one of these factors directly plays into the bottom line, when it comes down to it.

In the past, every curling club’s bonspiel would serve as revenue. But with interest dwindling, teams just simply aren’t there to travel and compete.

Howard said they will advertise every bonspiel that’s sent to them on the CurlSask website, but said they are cancelled when there’s a lack of interest. Howard said although bonspiels are important, it shouldn’t make or break a curling club’s season.

“(It’s) one of the smaller line items on a curling club’s budget. There’s definitely a decline there,” she said.

Tomorrow, we’ll travel to one of the hotbeds of curling in the province of Saskatchewan to take a look at how even with community support, countless volunteer hours, the attempt to bring in interest and bonspiels, it’s a struggle month to month to keep the doors open. Even though the town continues to live and breathe curling, local love for the game may not be enough.

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brady.lang@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @BradyLangBFN

by Brady Lang

The state of curling in Saskatchewan: It looks pretty from the top

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