Humboldt Curling Rink (file photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Ben Tompkins

Curling Tournaments

Triples Cup moving from Humboldt to Unity due to brine leak

Feb 7, 2024 | 3:54 PM

The City of Humboldt will no longer be the host for this year’s U12 and U15 Triples Cups.

The Humboldt Curling Club is currently dealing with a brine leak, which has the rest of their season in jeopardy.

Multiple options faced the club, as they had to decide whether or not to shut down altogether and do a massive repair, do a small repair and hope it holds, or limp along until the offseason.

They have decided to just wait until the offseason, however, with the potential of a major rupture, it didn’t seem fair to just hope for the best.

“We didn’t want to just limp along and still host the event, and then have the leak rupture on us a week or two out from the event and ruin the whole event for everyone,” explained Michael Ulriksen, director of community and leisure services for the City of Humboldt.

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“It was a tough decision, but we felt that it was in the best interest of both the organizers of the event and our facility to take this direction this year, and hopefully come back with some much-needed repairs done in the offseason and ready to go for next fall.”

Brine lines run under the concrete of the curling rink and suck out the heat allowing for the ice to stay frozen.

If it were to rupture, the club would come to an immediate halt, as the playing surface would melt.

With such problems, and the decision to defer the event, CurlSask was then tasked with finding a new host, with just two months until it began.

Thankfully, the community of Unity stepped up, despite what their club looked like just 12 months ago.

“The feel-good story coming from Unity, is you look at them a year ago, and they actually had some structural issues with some of their support beams in the building and there was a point where we weren’t sure if they were even going to be able to operate again,” CurlSask executive director Steve Turner told northeastNOW.

“There was talk of potential closure, but that was avoided as the necessary repairs were made. It was a struggle that Unity had last year and they came through to the other side ready to go, so we’re excited to move it there and celebrate their continued operation.”

For Humboldt, they are hopeful to be able to host the Triples Cup in the future, maybe in the next year or two.

The 2024 rendition of the event is scheduled for March 22 – 24.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On X @BenTompkins_8