World Curling Championships tickets scooped at record pace

[SHOFEAR]

World Curling Championships tickets scooped at record pace
By TERRY JONES, EDMONTON SUN


Scotland's David Murdoch is a good bet to be competing in Edmonton for the 2007 World Curling Championships.
One hundred and ten thousand, eight hundred and seventy-six.

That's the latest ballistic number in the remarkable history of Edmonton welcoming the world - 110,876.

That's the number of tickets the organizing committee for the Edmonton 2007 Ford World Curling Championships had sold before anybody knew the name of one single, solitary curler coming to compete.

That's more than double the number of tickets which has been sold so far for the Hamilton 2007 Brier.

The Victoria 2005 total of 116,167 will be beat before next weekend.



The Winnipeg 2003 Ford Worlds record attendance of 153,571 won't likely last until the end of the month.

"We've heard about what's happening in Edmonton,'' said Andreas Schwaller of Switzerland yesterday.

"Everybody in Europe is talking about how this is the one to go to for sure.''

Eight countries qualified for Edmonton out of the European Championships, which ended yesterday in Basel, Switzerland.

Switzerland. Scotland. Sweden. Germany. Norway. Finland. France. Denmark.

Two more - Australia and Korea - will join Canada and the U.S. in the 12-nation round-robin event here March 31-April 8.

The weird way Europe works doesn't necessarily mean the teams which qualified for Edmonton 2007 this week will be the ones who end up here for sure.

But you can write down the name of Marrku Uusipaavalniemi - better known as M-15 for the number of letters in his name - the loser of the gold medal game of the Torino Olympic Winter Games, in pen.

NAMING NAMES

Uusipaavalniemi was curling for his own spot at Worlds in finishing fifth at the event in Basel. He'll be here.

And you can write the name Hugh Millikin of Australia in pen and add the names of Scotland's David Murdoch, runner-up in the Europeans, Per Carlsen of Sweden and Sebastian Stock of Germany, Thomas Dufour of France, Johnny Frederiksen of Denmark and Jae Ho Lee of Korea in pencil, subject to official confirmation by their governing bodies.

But don't expect European Schwaller is an automatic to be here. Schwaller combined with Switzerland's other top skip, Ralph Stoeckli, to form an all-star team to win the event in Basel. Now the two split up and begin the playdowns to name the team to carry their nation's colours in Edmonton.

"He goes back to his team and we will actually play each other in the first game next month,'' Schwaller told reporters after winning Switzerland's first European title in 20 years.

NO PAL

One name many might have expected to be here - 2002 Olympic gold medal winner Pal Trulsen of Norway - won't be coming.

Despite being at the recent Continental Cup in Canada and returning to the BDO Canadian Open Grand Slam in Winnipeg,

Trulsen and his entire rink have retired. Coming instead will almost certainly be Thomas Ulsrud.

The Norwegian era in curling took a dramatic turn for the worse when Dordy Nordby failed to qualify for the women's worlds this week.

Now Edmonton organizers can begin to plan the aspects of the party which will have a Brier Patch feel with an international flavour.

Hire the oom-pah-pah band and order the sausages and sauerkraut for German night. Book the bagpipes and order the haggis (well maybe not) for Scotland night.

Focus on nationality group sales for the next couple of months. And crank up the Christmas stocking promotions for the mini-pack sales, which have already been going great.

'It's Going To Be Huge.'

No, sorry. Check that. That's the slogan for the FIFA U-20 World Championships of soccer here this summer.

It's going to 'Rock Your World.'

That's the one.

[Only The Lonely..]

You guys in Edmonton have a sick fetish for that ridiculous game too?

[SHOFEAR]

Originally Posted by Only The Lonely..

You guys in Edmonton have a sick fetish for that ridiculous game too?

Considering we pulled in close to 300 000 for the last Brier to come our way I'd say this is no longer a fetish, it's mainstream.

[SpongeG]

i think every small town has a curling rink

i know where i grew up starting in elementary school we had jam pail curling events and the church would have annual curling events

curling seems to be very big among small town folk who eventually move to cities...

[SHOFEAR]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

i think every small town has a curling rink

i know where i grew up starting in elementary school we had jam pail curling events and the church would have annual curling events

curling seems to be very big among small town folk who eventually move to cities...

There is certainly some truth to that.

However one of the big discussions that came up during and after the last brier in Edmonton was that while the morning and afternoon draws are dominated by old people, the evening draws would have a huge number of 20 and 30 something year olds. Of course nothing like an NHL game but it was enough to warrent a lot of discussion. I guess with a new generation of younger curlers the sport is attracting a new generation of fans.

[Boris2k7]

I curled for about 5 years... but I can't stand watching it.

[Only The Lonely..]

This sport is definitely more of a prairie phenomena.