The Grande Prairie Curling Centre made an appearance in City Hall on June 24th to deliver a report on how the club has utilized city funding and plans for the upcoming season.
GPCC Executive Director Collin Griffith was joined by his colleague, Events Director Mike Bain, to speak on how city funding has been utilized at the curling centre so far.
According to Griffith, the city provides his club with around $150K per year and is primarily used for utilities at the facility such as ice maintenance and installation, which Griffith says opens up more opportunities for staff to focus on putting together events and bonspiels throughout the curling season.
“Our efforts go, and certainly led by Mike, into, being a host for everything from qualifying events for all the curlers in the Peace Region, as well as Alberta, Canadian, and in some cases, World Championships, like we co-hosted with the city here with the Pinty’s event,” he says.
This year, a number of exciting curling events are coming to the city including the Provincial Stick Curling Championships and the Canadian Stick Curling Championships, which Bain suggests are just the first of many coming to Grande Prairie in the future.
“Next year, the 25-26 season, we are doing the Masters and U18s, plus we’re doing six qualifiers as well, which is mostly local teams,” he says.
During their presentation, the two board members highlighted what they believe could be a significant area of growth for the local curling scene. Bain suggests that stick-curling will continue to grow in popularity among Grande Prairie’s senior population, with some curlers hitting the ice at 95 years old.
“It will be for sure as people get older they have a little trouble doing the game of curling, bending down, and things like that, sweeping is harder,” he says. “With stick curling you don’t have to get down on your knees to throw a stone and so I see the growth is going to be big, especially with our people that [are] unable to do that anymore.”
Bain’s predictions will be put to the test this season during the upcoming Provincial Stick-Curling Championships this Winter.
