winnipegsun.com – Curling – Negotiations continue for ’08 Brier in ‘Peg
By JIM BENDER
LONDON, Ont. — Awarding Winnipeg the 2008 Brier is still on hold, Olympic singles curling is still on the table and the Americans are taking more notice of what they once considered a novelty sport.
Although the 2008 Winnipeg Brier has been considered a fait accompli for some time, Canadian Curling Association manager of event operations Warren Hansen said that announcement is not ready to be made.
“We’ve got some long, hard negotiations there that we’re certainly working hard on,” he said yesterday. “A bunch of people from the (Winnipeg) Convention Centre are coming to (the Brier in) Regina and we’re still talking. That’s a difficult one because we have to take over that whole building and we’re not there yet.”
But rest assured that Winnipeg is the frontrunner.
SINGLES: Hansen, who has been pushing for more curling events to be held at the Olympics, said there is still a possibility that singles curling will be added as a medal sport in time for 2010 in Vancouver.
“The Vancouver committee is agreeable to it as long as it means not bringing in any more curlers,” Hansen said.
That would mean that the curlers already headed there would compete in a Ford Hot Shots type of skills event. That decision will be made before this summer, Hansen said.
Hansen, by the way, is in favour of Vancouver hosting the 2009 Canadian Curling Trials so, it could be used as a test venue for the Olympics.
“Olympic curling is going to be huge and, if we’re able to put the trials in that same venue, it would be enormous as well — from the impact on the sport from being in the Olympic city,” he said. “If we can make it happen, that’s what we’ll do. Then, we’d put that ice surface in for the trials and it would pretty much stay there and everything would be in place there for the Olympics.
“So, they could practise on the same surface with the same rocks so, there would be no surprises.”
A revamped qualifying process for the Canadian Curling Trials will be announced after it is approved by the CCA board in April, Hansen said.
AMERICAN INFLUENCE: The USA’s Pete Fenson winning Olympic bronze could mean even more to the sport’s big picture than Canada’s Brad Gushue winning gold. Even a San Diego newspaper carried that story on its sports front while curling is getting more exposure on the American TV networks — with help from Winnipeg’s Don Duguid.
“The Americans winning a medal is one of the best things that could happen to us in this country,” said Hansen, who had helped spearhead curling’s inclusion into the Olympics. “If the sport has the opportunity to expand anywhere in the world, it’s the United States and that’s for one pure reason — the fact that facilities can still be built there at a reasonable cost because there is land available. That becomes a huge issue in Europe and in countries like Japan, it is almost impossible.”
Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved.
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