The Rotary Spirit Centre will be the site of the 2017 Alberta men’s curling championship.
Known as the Boston Pizza Cup, the Feb. 8-14, 2017 event will see teams battle for the right to represent Alberta at the Brier and will also serve as an Olympic qualifier.
“I think it will put Westlock on the national stage,” said Paula Clark, president of the Westlock Curling Club.
Potential benefits to the town are huge as the final two rounds of the event will be televised across Canada. There’s also the economic benefit as the week-long competition is expected to draw thousands.
“It will really showcase our community and our facility we’re really excited about it,” said mayor Ralph Leriger. “It’ll be a huge boon for local business. I think there will be significant economic spin off.”
For the event the event will see the Spirit Centre’s arena transformed into four sheets of curling ice.
Extra seating will be brought in to increase audience capacity and corporate boxes will be set up to cater for sponsors and VIPs — organizers hope to fit around 700 spectators.
“There’s four nights where will have entertainment,” said organizing committee head Lavern Bazin.
Because of the event’s high profile, organizers are expecting some big names to hit the ice.
Potential competitors include 2014 Brier winning skip Kevin Koe and junior world champ, and previous provincial men’s finalist Brendan Bottcher.
Bringing the championships to town is something members of area’s curling community have been working on for awhile.
Once it was clear that the town was able to host such a large-scale event, town council was approached to provide support, including helping with arena rental.
“This is part of our overall strategy,” Leriger said. “Really this was discussions with people from the curling club over the long haul.
The impact of hosting the provincial championships can’t be understated. Bazin said there’s potential for it to have a positive spinoff for the sport of curling.
“Lacombe (previous hosts) said they did realize the next year a lot of entries that they didn’t have before because it created interest in curling and it was at forefront,” he said.
While the event is still over a year away, work has already started. Organizers reckon they’ll need a small army of volunteers and will be announcing more details in the future.
“I’ve told our members that we got the bid and I’ve had all kinds of offers to help,” said Clark. “We’re going to be looking at service clubs, schools, 4-H clubs to hopefully get behind us.”
