The Aberdeen Curling Club along with the Aberdeen Recreation Complex (ARC) will host five different CurlSask provincial championships in 2021.
The CurlSask 5 Championships event is scheduled to take place from February 12 to 20.
The respective competitions that are part of the event are the Junior Women’s, Junior Men’s, Senior Men’s, Senior Women’s and Mixed Doubles Championships.
ARC General Manger Bonnie Doige said she is excited that Aberdeen was chose to host the event. She also added that the building is well equipped to host as series of championships.
The facility consists of both a curling and a hockey arena. The curling rink has of four sheets, while the arena will be converted in to a curling site and has room to install four sheets, for a total of eight sheets.
“We needed a facility that had ideally an arena and a curling rink connected together,” said CurlSask event manager Bruce Korte said. “Aberdeen is such a tremendous facility, it was a natural fit for us.”
Originally, another venue agreed to be the site of the CurlSask 5 Championships but withdrew from hosting the event.
“We ended up looking around and we found Aberdeen just fit our needs. So we contacted Aberdeen and they were excited,” Korte said.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of professional sports playoffs are being held in a bubble like location and with five championships happening under one roof around the same time kind of gives that feel, but CurlSask has been planning this event for quite some time.
“It’s been in the works and it’s just the fruition of a lot of hard work by a lot of people,” Korte said.
Aberdeen is very close to Saskatoon which is also great because people involved with the event can stay at hotels nearby.
Usually a respective championship is held at a different location or in some cases one location hosts two championships, but never before were there five different events held at the same location around the same time.
“We’re excited because it gives a little more focus on these events,” Korte said. “This (competition) gives these events a push up and gives a lot curlers the opportunity to play on arena ice, which is a unique experience.”
This is a big event which will attract many people, but Korte mentioned that since this competition is happening during the pandemic, safety is their number one priority.
“We will have a lot of protocols and procedures in place,” he said. “What our sport is really good at is we can physical distance between teams. It’s a non-contact sport with physical distancing. So we’re positioned quite well to make it COVID friendly.”
The ARC has plenty of room to host the event. Doige mentioned that it’s a 7,000 square feet facility, with upper and lower viewing areas, as well as some viewing seats in the arena as well. Even though the building will not be at capacity, numerous fans can still watch the games wile adhering to the social distancing guidelines because of the several viewing options.
Doige also mentioned that there is licensed dining in the facility as well, which is also great for the event.
Overall, the event should feature enjoyable games to watch since it will consist of different skill levels of curling.