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Written by JASON PETERS, Citizen staff
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Tuesday, 25 November 2008 |
Tickets for pre-Olympic curling event go on sale Saturday
It’s called the Road to the Roar. Starting on Saturday, Prince George sports fans can buy their tickets to ride.
The Road to the Roar -- Nov. 10-14, 2009 at CN Centre -- will be the highest-profile curling event to come to Prince George since the 2000 Scott Tournament of Hearts national women’s championship. The 2009 tournament will feature 12 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams, fighting for berths in the Canadian Olympic trials -- or the Roar of the Rings -- which will be held three weeks later in Edmonton.
Four men’s teams and four women’s teams will use the Road to the Roar to springboard themselves to Edmonton. Men’s rinks that have already qualified for trips to Prince George are skipped by Randy Ferbey, Wayne Middaugh, Jeff Stoughton, Kerry Burtnyk, Pat Simmons and Kevin Koe. Women’s rinks that have earned spots on the CN Centre ice are led by Kelly Scott, Sherry Anderson, Shannon Kleibrink, Sherry Middaugh, Cheryl Bernard, Stephanie Lawton and Amber Holland.
On the men’s side, teams skipped by Glenn Howard and Kevin Martin have already clinched spots in the Olympic trials, and two more rinks -- potentially out of the above group -- will also go directly to the trials.
On the women’s side, only the Jennifer Jones foursome has already locked up a berth in the Olympic trials. That means three more direct passes to Edmonton are still up for grabs and could be claimed by rinks that have secured invitations to Prince George.
Regardless of what the final field for Prince George ends up being, it will include national and even international superstars of the sport.
“It will be the best curling that people have ever seen in Prince George,” said Larry Parker, who is co-chairing the Road to the Roar host committee with Neil King.
Yes, even better than the 2000 Scott, which crowned the Kelley Law rink as national champion.
“This will be better curling because of the quality of teams that are coming,” Parker said. “We will have 12 of the best women’s teams and 12 of the best men’s teams in Canada. Instead of getting one men’s champion from Alberta, there could be four champions from Alberta. They all get to play here. There will be no weak links. When you go to a Brier or a Scotties, 20- to 30-per cent of the teams have a realistic chance of winning it. Here, everybody does.”
Tickets will be available through Ticketmaster (250-614-9100) and via the internet (seasonofchampions.ca) on Saturday. Full-event passes are $250 for end zone seating and $200 for side view seating. Those who buy end zone seats prior to Dec. 31 will pay a discounted price of $225.
“We understand that economic times are a little bit tough now, and hopefully they’ll be a little bit better by (next November),” Parker said. “We’ve tried to price the tickets as reasonably as we could. The full-event packages, between $200 and $250, we think are pretty well-priced for the quality of curling people will get.”
Four draws will be held for each of the first two days of the Road to the Roar. Three draws are scheduled for each of the final three days. Eight of the games will send teams to the Olympic trials, and each of those games will be televised by either TSN or TSN2.
The Olympic trials in Edmonton will qualify one men’s team and one women’s team for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.
The Canadian Curling Association awarded Prince George the Road to the Roar last March. The event is expected to cost about $300,000 in hosting fees. The provincial government has already indicated it will lend its support. The economic gain for Prince George is estimated at $1.3 million.
“It’s just another opportunity for Prince George to show off what we’ve got here, the whole city but more importantly our volunteers and our community spirit,” said Mayor Colin Kinsley, who attended a Tuesday media conference to announce the release of tickets.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 25 November 2008 )
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