Viterra Curling Championships a Success in Neepawa and The Story of Making It Happen Fascinating

While preparation for the Viterra Men’s Curling Championship in Neepawa began as early as 2019, the event itself kicked off on February 3rd, this year of 2023, and that’s the story that Scott Newton, co-chair with Heather Todoruk, really wants to tell now that they’re on the other side of it. And that's what he did at the Rotary Club recently,

He said that Immediately following a Friday night MJHL hockey game in the Yellowhead arena, volunteers got to work building an entire VIP platform at one end of the ice. Crews were coming in as hockey fans were leaving and they worked all night so that ice prep could begin first thing on Saturday morning. That process is a fascinating one. He said that to convert a hockey arena to five sheets of curling ice, you have to first completely level the ice, then paint a white surface over the entire ice to cover any existing marks or logos to start fresh on top of the existing surface.

The whole thing “went as good as you can expect” says Newton. After repainting the ice, installing hacks and bumpers, and flooding and pebbling each individual sheet, by Monday night they were able to hold some volunteer matches to break in the ice and identify any problems before the competitors arrived. From Wednesday to Sunday, 32 rinks competed in the championship, including some of the top rinks in the country.

Overall, says Newton, they netted approximately $100,000, to be split between the Yellowhead Arena and the Neepawa Curling Club. A lot of that was thanks to sponsors stepping up to support the event, the vast majority of which were local, but organisers also did very well with ticket sales, bringing in over $15,000 more than they’d budgeted for. With eight teams coming from the local area or having local connections - to Carberry in particular, about half an hour to the south of Neepawa - there was a greater pool of spectators to draw from.

CurlManitoba concerns itself only with the competitive curling itself, so hosts are free to plan other events around it as they like. For Neepawa, that included a very successful steak supper and live band which drew non-curling fans to support the event, and a progressive 50/50 draw that they promoted on the livestream, which more than made up for any ticket sales they might have lost due to the event being both livestreamed and broadcast.

Newton says they actually found themselves overstaffed with volunteers, so if they were to host a future event that is something they could look at - to reallocate people into the most effective roles. He also wonders if there is a hosting model that relies less on sponsorships to make the event a success. If that were the case, a town like Neepawa might be able to host the event more frequently than it currently does.

Overall, they consider the event a huge success, and while they aren’t quite ready to start planning another just yet, he definitely doesn’t rule out that possibility for the future.