HALIFAX – No, no, Nunavut?
Could political correctness kill the Brier?
Dramatic changes are ahead for the red-hot game of curling after a ballistic Olympic Winter Games impact around the world.
But at home there are scare stories circulating behind the scenes that political correctness could spoil the grand national sports event which celebrates Canadiana like no other.
Brier boss Warren Hansen swears it won’t work that way.
Political correctness, however, is almost certainly going to make separate “provinces” of Nunavut, Yukon and the Northwest Territories, likely to kick in for the 2012 Brier.
One representative
Currently, one team from all the Territories represents the North. And, as usual, the Polar Bears are out of it early.
The status of Northern Ontario and a Team Canada concept similar to the one being used at the Scotties to bring back defending champions may come in to play.
But if it appears that the tall foreheads of the Canadian Curling Association are going to risk everything over playing nice with Nunavut, Hansen insists they are not going to go so far as to mess with the essence of what makes the Brier an event which manages to transcend the sport itself.
“This is not just another bonspiel,” he said.
Adding Nunavut to the juniors has messed that event up beyond belief, creating more games and leaving one Territories team with a 0-12 record and the other at 1-11.
They may have Nunavut in the mix but that doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily see Nunavut at the Brier every year, says Hansen.
“It’ll involve more structural change. It’s most likely to involve a relegation type of system,” he said of the lowest two finishing provinces dropping out the next year.
All of this will likely be decided in July.
“The key thing is that there will not be more teams in the Brier. The Brier will remain at 12 teams. The structure we have can’t be messed with. The whole thing has been working for 81 years. If you start tinkering with it, lord knows what you could end up with.”
But isn’t that what they’re about to do?
It could mean that Prince Edward Island, long a free space on the Brier bingo card like the Territories, yet a legitimate province and the cradle of Confederation, with their flag-waving Spud Island followers, could be eliminated from many or most Briers.
But there are also other changes which could be coming to the sport for the next Olympic quadrennial.
Will the game go from 10 ends to eight?
The World Curling Federation will be voting on that and other proposed changes in April.
It looked like the international game would follow the World Curling Tour eight-end, cash-spiel format until the Olympic TV numbers started coming in from around the world.
The numbers were massive, often because there was almost always curling to go to during the Olympic days.
How that one will go now is a total toss up, according to Hansen.
“It had a huge TV impact,” said Hansen, the Canadian Curling Association director of event management.
The CCA has a lot of interest in the World Curling Federation meetings in Cortina, Italy, this year.
“A whole bunch of things are being presented,” said Hansen.
“The elimination of tie-breakers is one which would make scheduling a lot easier. But if you had three teams tied for the final playoff spot and they had one win and one loss against each other, it would be settled by draws to the button.
Eliminate extra ends
“Elimination of extra ends is another one. It’s such a tight time squeeze. When you have an extra end, it causes problems for TV and in the building,” he added, of the complete turnover of crowds from one event to the other at the Olympics.
“We’ll see what they do with it and then decide what we’ll do with it,” he said of the WCF and CCA.
In Canada there’s also the question of collecting points to qualify for the next Roar of the Rings Olympic trials leading to Sochi 2014.
Two years? Or three years, as was the case leading to Vancouver 2010?
“I think the curlers are split on it,” said Hansen.
Nunavut? Better not poll the players, or anybody else at the Brier on that one.
terry.jones@sunmedia.ca
