North Bay’s Memorial Gardens will be transformed into a world-class curling venue again next fall as organizers announced that the city will take on a Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event October 22nd.
Mark Brown, the event chair, says no bid process took place. In fact, the request was made to him by officials at Sportsnet who organize the national TV event, to see if the city would want to host an event of this magnitude.
Brown was one of the key organizers for the Ford Women’s World Curling event that broke attendance records last March.
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He says Jennifer Jones, whose team won gold on North Bay ice at that event, played a key role in recommending North Bay as a spot for one of the seven grand slam events next season.
“Sportsnet told us that Jennifer Jones went to them to talk about the event in North Bay and the fact they had to get a Grand Slam event here in North Bay,” said Brown after Monday's press event at the Granite Club.
“She considers North Bay to be the centre of the curling world.”
Brown was surprised that an event of this calibre would want to come to North Bay.
“We were focussing on another event that we may still pursue in the future,” said Brown.
“We never really had it in our sights to have a grand slam event.”
Brown says the Ford Worlds inspired the community as a whole and he hopes this event does too.
“When we saw the support of the citizens of North Bay coming out to watch that event, when we saw the financial support we received from the business community, it definitely inspired us to take on this no question,” said Brown.
The event will bring in the top 15 men’s and top 15 women’s teams to North Bay next October from the 22nd to the 27th.
Today’s event was a pre-launch as an official press conference including Sportsnet will take place in North Bay in late February when ticket information will be released.
