We never get tired of great announcements for Estevan.
We’ve recently found out that the Centennial Cup presented by Tim Hortons, which is the Junior A hockey championship, would be coming to the Energy City, and that the Estevan Fair and the Estevan Rodeo would be held on the same weekend this year for the first time in more than 20 years.
As stated before, these are the types of events that bring a buzz to the city, creating a level of excitement for our residents.
Now we’ve found out the Estevan Curling Club will be the host for the 2021 Viterra Scotties Tournament of Hearts women’s curling provincials and the SaskTel Tankard men’s curling provincials.
They’ll be held back-to-back over a 10-day span from Jan. 29-Feb. 7, 2021, at Affinity Place.
The curling club is no stranger to hosting big events in recent years. The SaskTel Tankard and the Home Hardware Canada Cup were held here in 2018. Both events brought attracted thousands of people to Affinity Place, and drew hundreds of people to Estevan.
They showcased our venues to people who haven’t been here before, had people talking about something that was out of the ordinary for this community, and allowed visitors to experience some good southeast Saskatchewan hospitality.
The excitement was particularly high for the Canada Cup, since we haven’t had many national events here in the past.
These events have also created greater interest for the sport locally, especially among young people. One of the best moves for the local curling club with these big events has been to get local youths interested and involved as much as possible.
Now we’re going to get both the top men’s and women’s curling teams in the province here next year.
If you’re thinking that this is a new concept, you’d be right. This year the two events will be held back-to-back in the same community for the first time in many years, if not ever, when they happen in Melville. It’s an interesting gambit for CurlSask. The host club and community get the benefit of having these two marquee events.
But the demands are also much greater. Instead of having one five-day event with several draws per day, you have two events. It means that you need that many more volunteers and you have that much more work to pull it off.
It’s probably a good thing that Melville will be the first to host these twinned events. It can be tough to be the first to try something, especially when it comes to hosting to two marquee provincial championships for a sport that is still pretty popular in Saskatchewan.
Estevan will get to see what Melville did right, and where improvements can be made, and how this city can put its own spin on the event.
As for the community, the local hotels, restaurants and other businesses will be excited to have 12 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams coming here, plus the families of those curlers, the fans who will want to see this great curling and the people associated with CurlSask.
Much like the Centennial Cup, there’s going to be a multimillion dollar spinoff associated with having all of these people in our community.
And we’re going to have the excitement associated with an event like this.
Estevan has proven it can host these marquee curling events. Now it’s upping its game by having the top two events for CurlSask, as this city continues to build its name and its reputation in the curling community, both provincially and nationally.
Hopefully the Scotties and the Tankard will be well supported by the community, both in terms of attendance and sponsorships. They will bring the high level of curling you expect from these events, and they will help further establish Estevan as a place for top curling competitions, whether it be provincially or nationally.
We know one thing for certain: the local committee is going to do everything they can to make these events a huge success.
