Swift Current Wants The Olympic Curling Trials

(From Southwest Booster)

The Swift Current Curling Club is hoping to bring another high profile curling event to Swift Current.

Just over one year after successfully hosting the 2010 Ford World Women’s Curling Championship at the Credit Union iplex, the club announced its intention to bid on the Canadian Curling Pre-Trials “Road to the Roar” event that will take place November 2013.

The event will feature 12 mens and 12 womens teams that have qualified for the pre-trial. The Road to the Roar would narrow down the field to two men’s and two women’s teams that would play in the “Roar of the Rings” Olympic qualifier, which would further narrow the field down to the top mens and womens teams to represent Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

The Road to the Rings would be played inside the hockey arena with 18 draws over five days. Swift Current Curling Club Vice-President and Publicity Director Clayton Wicks said the club has the support of the Swift Current Broncos, who would be forced out of their home facility, although they would not be as adversely affected as when they were without a playoff home in 2010.

Wicks explained why the club chose to bid on this event after choosing not to bid on events such as the 2014 Ford Women’s Worlds, the 2013 Continental Cup, and the 2014 Canada Cup.

“This one’s in November. It suits well with the City. We’ve talked to the City. The City’s always been great. They’re going to support almost anything we do. We’ve had discussions with the Broncos and they’re behind us 100 percent of the way. They’re basically sitting there waiting to see if we need help. They’re willing to partner and the ball’s in the Curling Club’s court as to how we want to proceed with it, but it just works better for everything.”

The Swift Current Curling Club is projecting an economic spin-off of $4 million.

The club is seeking public support for the bid and is asking the public to log on to sccurlingclub.ca to take a survey located on the homepage to assist in their preparations.

The poll gives voters four options. Early voting had 64 percent of voters choosing “I think it is a great idea.” 28 percent of voters selected “I think it is a great idea and will probably volunteer to help.”

Eight percent of the voters selected “I don’t like the idea,” while none of the voters chose the “I think the idea is horrible, why do we have curling anyway” option.