TORONTO — Curling has long been an integral part of the Canadian sports fabric and the news of Sportsnet purchasing the Grand Slam of Curling is a major step for the sport in the country.
At a press conference Thursday, president of broadcasting for Rogers Media, Scott Moore, and president of the World Competitive Curlers Association, Pierre Charette, announced Sportsnet will operate the international men’s and women’s curling circuit that was acquired from Insight Sports Ltd.
Olympic gold medallist and multiple-time national and international champion Kevin Martin, who was on hand for the announcement, told sportsnet.ca that the new deal will not only help grow curling in Canada, but will provide a platform for the sport’s youth to excel.
“The young teams, the young, really good ones, they don’t get on the TV and in the media very much, so it really makes it hard for the corporate community to get to know these young people,” Martin said. “They’re great athletes and put so much effort into it. Now all of a sudden they’re going to be on TV and in media more and more and more and they’re going to become household names quicker. It’s really going to be able to help these young people get their sponsorships, be able to grow themselves as a business. They’ll be able to grow their brand quicker and that means so much. It took so long for (our team) to build our brand. Now these young guys can build their brand so much quicker than we were able to and it’s a real positive.”
The Grand Slam series is known as a place where the best curlers in the world can compete against one another and the 46-year-old said he always gets excited for these types of challenges.
“I love the fact that it’s the best playing the best. We don’t have that in our sport all the time. To be able to get the chance to play against the best, that’s when you get the juices flowing. It’s not as easy to get the juices flowing when you’re not playing the best guys.”
Martin, whose son Karrick Martin is an up-and-comer in the curling world, believes it’s this level of competition at the slams that truly develops young talent.
“My son is one of these kids, and Glenn Howard’s kid, and all these young guys coming up, they start practising in the middle of July and the reason they do this is to make sure they’re ahead of the older guys so they can qualify for the Grand Slams,” Martin explained.
“That’s what it’s about as you’re going through the sport these days, is trying to get into a slam, trying to get to play the best, trying to improve yourself at a young age and that’s what the Grand Slams have done. The average age of our champions has dropped almost 10 years in the last 15 years.”
Curling has always been popular in Canada and its appeal increased even more so after Martin and his team won the gold medal at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games.
Sportsnet has covered and produced curling events since 1998 and Moore hopes the new acquisition will take the sport to a new level.
“We believe we can grow curling in this country, we can build it up even bigger,” Moore said.
He added that a partnership with CBC, through a sub-licensing agreement, will help provide the best coverage for the Gram Slam ever. Every Grand Slam event will have a minimum of four days of coverage with 2-3 draws each day that can be seen on either television, online or various mobile devices.
Moore hopes that the Grand Slam of Curling will become like the PGA Tour of the curling world.
“It will grow the sport at all levels, it will allow curlers to make this their living … to grow the base of curling and to grow the sport overall in Canada and around the world, we’re excited about that,” Moore said.
Martin added that not only will it help young Canadians, but international teams that compete in the series will benefit from playing top competition.
“We’ve seen in the last few years that the international teams are good, but no so consistent,” Martin said. “In some events you don’t want to show all your cards early, you try to hold some of them back for the semi-final or final so you’ll have a bit of an advantage. In a slam, if you try to hold back some of the cards you won’t make the final or semi-final. So what the (international) teams are able to do is by coming and playing the best teams in a slam, they see the cards on the table every game and there’s so much knowledge to be picked up.
“It’s so important for the international community and it’s really brought their game up and I think that’s a good thing. I like that they’re getting better and going to pick up medals and we have to keep our game increasing to keep up with them. I think it’s very healthy.”
The 2012-13 Grand Slam of Curling series kicks off with The Masters from Nov. 14 to 18. The event will take place in Brantford, Ont., and features 34 men’s and women’s teams.