Hearts coming, now hurry hard to sell it
By MORRIS DALLA COSTA -- London Free Press
Now that the official announcement has been made that the 2006 Scott Tournament of Hearts will be held in London, the most crucial component of the championship begins.
That would be selling the event, and thank God there's a year and a half left to do it.
People might consider that part of the equation to be a non-issue. After all, the tournament is the the national championship for women curlers. It's an high-profile event and has benefitted over the years from such popular champions as the late Sandra Schmirler, Colleen Jones and Kelley Law.
Major curling competitions attract not only great interest, but good television viewership as well. So what's there to worry about?
Organizers who officially made the announcement of the event coming to London yesterday will tell you that there isn't much to worry about. It's going to be held in February 2006 at the John Labatt Centre, a facility where every event seems to be a success. Tournament chair Peter Inch has a history of running successful curling events, if on a somewhat smaller basis. Inch has proved he has the capability of putting together a team that can sell events. He wanted a major event to come here. To his credit, he was successful.
But in the bigger picture, London was awarded the tournament, which will be the toughest sell of all.
The city was in the running for the men's national championship, the Brier. It was also in the running for perhaps the biggest prize of all, the Olympic Trials, which went to Halifax.
While the Scott Tournament of Hearts is certainly attractive, it rates behind the other two. If it wasn't for the fact the Brier, Scott Tournament and the Olympic trials are national events, the Canadian Curling Association would probably love holding them on a rotating basis in western Canada. Curling is almost a religion in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Even major cities like Ottawa haven't had an easy time selling tickets to curling events.
It's imperative that major curling events make money -- lots of money.
That's how the CCA funds all its activities. So while the finals of these events all draw big crowds, it's the draws during the week, those in the morning and afternoon, which have to attract as many people as possible.
The last time the Tournament of Hearts was held in London was 20 years ago. The attendance was disappointing. Now there is a new facility and the event's profile has grown.
Call this a test for the city. Londoners have proved they are prepared to shell out hard-earned coin for hockey and concerts. They have done it for one-time special events like the Harlem Globetrotters. Will it happen for curling and more pointedly the Tournament of Hearts?
Warren Hansen, manager of event planning for the CCA, indicated London has wanted an event for "quite some time."
"With that new building, we felt it was a good spot to take an event, and they were interested in having whatever we could award to them," Hansen said.
If this event is successful, London may not have to take the leftovers or "whatever we could award them."
Given a choice, the Brier and Olympic Trials would have been preferable to the Hearts. But Inch knows what he's doing. He has more than a year and a half to organize and sell this event. If it's successful and London proves to be an eastern Canadian centre that can sell curling, Inch knows he'll likely get a shot at one of the two bigger events.
Those events will be a lot easier to sell.
