‘It’s time to talk:’ Curlers ready to push for significant changes to Brier

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If high-level curlers are capable of get their factors throughout to the powers that be in Canada, the Tim Hortons Brier and Scotties Match of Hearts may look very completely different sooner or later.

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Curlers are prepared for vital modifications to the format of the Canadian males’s and ladies’s championships they usually need to share their concepts with the stakeholders who form the sport.

“It’s time for Curling Canada to seize quite a lot of gamers and a few stakeholders and sit down and have a great, strong dialogue about what course the Brier must go, with regard to the format,” three-time champion Brad Gushue stated from the 2022 Brier in Lethbridge, Alta., this week.

“I actually hope they interact the gamers within the course of and never simply the identical outdated people who’ve been making the selections on these things. Usher in folks like myself, Brad Jacobs, Kevin Koe, Kerri Einarson, Tracy Fleury and let’s have a frank dialogue in regards to the course this factor must go.”

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Curlers don’t all agree on what must be completed, however many consider there are answers to be checked out that may assist grassroots curling, that may make the Brier and Scotties higher, and can assist Canada, as a rustic, have extra success on the worldwide stage.

“It’s one occasion, making an attempt to be all the things to everybody and it’s failing,” Manitoba skip Mike McEwen stated.

“With one occasion, it’s this tremendous large large internet of all the things and I feel all people is left with a foul style of their mouth due to it.”

The issue with the Brier proper now’s multi-layered.

There’s an apparent large hole between the standard of the elite groups within the occasion and the provinces and territories with small curling communities. At this yr’s Brier, the underside 5 groups within the subject mixed for a document of 4-36.
Nunavut’s Peter Mackey went 0-8 and misplaced by a mixed rating of 85-19, dropping an 18-1 choice to Manitoba at one level.

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“My viewpoint on it’s that is an leisure product,” Gushue stated. “In case you’re making an attempt to promote tickets for five,000 to 10,000 folks to return watch and also you’re making an attempt to get half 1,000,000 to 1,000,000 folks watching on TV, you’ve obtained to have one thing that’s entertaining and goes to maintain folks engaged.

“Clearly among the video games we’ve would do this, however there’s greater than half the video games right here on the Brier that aren’t entertaining and most are considerably painful to look at. Now we have to actually have a look at that.”

There’s a perception that top-level curlers aren’t being effectively served of their pursuit of worldwide success by blowing out half the groups within the Brier subject.

As effectively, there’s a idea that the event of younger curlers in Canada is being stunted as a result of they’re blocked from moving into occasions just like the Brier and Scotties, when poorer groups are getting in simply because they symbolize a sure province or territory.

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Three curlers Postmedia spoke to this week — all who want to be heard by Curling Canada — supplied three completely different options to a really advanced downside.

Gushue believes the dimensions of the Brier subject must be decreased significantly. It’s presently at 18 groups, with 14 member associations, one defending champion and three wild card groups that earned their method in via the Canadian Crew Rating System.

“The course that I might take is much less groups,” Gushue stated. “I feel it needs to be extra just like the Olympic trials, with an eight-, nine- or 10-team spherical robin.

“I actually need to stress the significance of constructing positive that locations like Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and different provinces that don’t have a whole lot of top-calibre competitors, nonetheless have an avenue to get into the Brier. Perhaps we revisit one thing like relegation and a play-in occasion main as much as the Brier.

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“I used to be not a fan of that format when it occurred earlier than, however I’m actually extra of a fan of it now after seeing these blowouts, as a result of it’s laborious to look at. It’s not enjoyable to be on the market since you don’t need to present your opponent up, however you additionally need to make pictures and folks have paid to return and see that.”

Others help extra radical concepts, together with one that will see the creation of a two-tiered system that retains the traditions of the Brier to assist youthful curlers and people smaller curling provinces, whereas giving elite curlers an avenue to focus extra on changing into the perfect on this planet.

“I do admire that there are a whole lot of youthful groups which can be actually sitting on the sidelines, not getting a chance,” McEwen stated.

“It’s tough although as a result of it’s very a lot Canadiana having a consultant from every province or territory.”
McEwen believes there’s a chance now to return the Brier and Scotties to a very conventional format.

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His thought is, you are taking your prime seven or eight CTRS groups, and have them play a separate occasion to find out who’s going to battle on the world championships for Canada.

These top-tier groups wouldn’t play within the Brier and Scotties and wouldn’t be subjected to any type of provincial residency guidelines — basically they’d have a chance to kind utilizing gamers from anyplace within the nation.

In the meantime, the Brier and Scotties would nonetheless be interprovincial occasions, that includes lots of the up-and-comers within the sport and the winners of these tournaments would qualify to play within the top-tier Canadian championships.

“Perhaps there can be a chance to truly have two actually good occasions for curling yearly, that would have the help of sponsors and followers, however attraction in several methods,” McEwen stated.

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“We’re actually struggling proper now. Even the athletes are actually feeling prefer it’s not working and we have to speak about it.”

Manitoba roller Jason Gunnlaugson desires to see extra delicate modifications.

He believes the 18-team subject is serving its function in ensuring many of the prime groups within the nation are within the Brier, however he thinks Curling Canada ought to additional loosen residency restrictions so as to make the groups extra aggressive.

“It sounds just like the writing is on the wall for the residency necessities to be additional loosened,” Gunnlaugson stated.

“It’s essential for improvement. Too many gamers in locations like Manitoba, Alberta and Ontario have simply missed the Brier for too lengthy of their lives and it actually hurts improvement. In the event that they loosen residency restrictions, it’s going to assist among the extra distant provinces strengthen their line-ups with an additional import or two. That may make a few of these matches a bit bit nearer.”

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After Canada got here residence from the Olympics in Beijing with only one bronze medal out of three curling occasions, and primarily based on current poor outcomes on the world championships, there are a lot of who consider the nation wants a curling summit to deal with its issues instantly, as a brand new quadrennial begins.

“We positive do,” McEwen stated.

It’s time to repair the Olympic qualifying course of, repair the Brier and Scotties, even repair the money excursions which can be used as a improvement floor for budding and elite curlers.

“I don’t know the reply to how we do this, however we’ve obtained to maintain looking,” McEwen stated.

“We’ve obtained some work to do.”

Twyman@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/Ted_Wyman