All parties pleased with how well Brier ran

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This article was published 10/03/2019 (2115 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

By all accounts, the first Brier in Brandon in 37 years was a success.

Organizers were proud of the way things went, Curling Canada was happy with how smooth things ran and players couldn’t have been more pleased to be able to leave their hotel room and have a short walk to get ready for their games, to which they were greeted by a vocal crowd.

It was a lot of work to bring the Canadian men’s curling championship to the Wheat City for the first time since 1982, but for Ryan Shields, it was worth it.

“It was a great week,” said Shields, who co-chaired to event along with Nate Andrews and Jackie Nichol. “The support from the community, the support from Curl Canada and everything and the sponsors was unreal. It’s been a lot of fun. All our hard work is paying off.”

Despite only hosting three Briers — the other time was in 1963 — Brandon has left an indelible mark on the event. It was the first community to break the 100,000 mark for total attendance and it created the Patch, a bar with live entertainment that runs throughout the entire bonspiel, in 1982.

The attendance numbers weren’t as high this time around, finishing at 75,617. It’s actually the second-lowest total attendance for a Brier since 1989. However, numbers weren’t expected above the 100,000 mark, like every Brier since 1992 has accomplished except the 2014 event in Kamloops, B.C., as that would have required a virtual sellout in all 22 draws.

When it comes to total numbers versus passionate fans who understand the game, the players will pick the latter every time.

“The atmosphere is f—g crazy,” Alberta lead Ben Hebert said his team topped Wild Card 4-3 in Sunday’s championship game. “From a business perspective you’d like to get the huge numbers, but for the players, playing in front of a 5,000-capacity arena that’s sold out rather than a 12,000-seat arena that’s half full, the atmosphere is way better.

“Any time you’re in the Prairies — Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba — you’ll have awesome crowds and knowledgeable crowds, which is awesome. It’s a special place to have a Brier. It will have a special place in my heart because we won it, but they did a really, really good job. I’ve been to some Briers that maybe haven’t been as good as this one, but this one was awesome and I think they should have it again.”

Northern Ontario skip Brad Jacobs agreed.

“The volunteers were fantastic. The fans were great,” he said. “We were fortunate enough to be on the Manitoba draw in our pool and we got great crowds all week. It’s great to see them come out and support this event. We know people travel from all over Canada, but Brandon did a great job, it’s a great city to host the Brier and I’m sure they’ll host many more championships in the future.”

Shields said the committee didn’t target an attendance figure, but was pleased to average 3,437 people per draw. The biggest crowds were at the 1-vs.-2 Page playoff game (4,272) and the final (4,234).

“We’ve been really happy with everything,” said Shields, who thought the Brier would be good based on the buzz around the city a few weeks before the wildcard game on March 1, which drew between 3,000 and 4,000 more fans. “It’s kind of lived up to everything in terms of expectations going into it. All the feedback we’ve got from curlers and everybody, it’s been a great event. Really, we couldn’t ask for too much more.”

Although it has been a long two weeks for the organizing committee — it started converting the hockey ice to a curling surface on Feb. 24 — the work to bring the Brier to Brandon started a long time before that.

Because the Wheat City had not hosted a Curling Canada event since the 2002 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, small steps were taken to get back on the map. It started with the city putting on the provincial men’s curling championship in February 2015 and that was followed up with the Canada Cup of Curling in 2016. It culminated with last week’s Brier.

It took a lot of time and effort from countless volunteers to put on all three events, but it was a good thing as the host committees learned different things from provincials and the Canada Cup that allowed the Brier to run as smoothly as it did.

“It’s been an interesting experience in the fact that each step got gradually bigger,” said Shields, whose father-in-law Jim Horn was the director of facilities at the 1982 Brier. “Each one got a little more well-known, culminating with the Brier as a lot more fun.

“I think it made it a lot more manageable for Brandon too because we got our feet wet with provincials and then we went into the Canada Cup and learned the Curling Canada system and then we stepped into the Brier. I think it would have been a lot more overwhelming if we tried to jump straight into a Brier first. It was nice to go in little stages and figure things out as we went.”

One thing that Shields didn’t expect was for the Brier to be going head-to-head with the Brandon University Bobcats men’s volleyball team’s run to a Canada West conference title. BU playoff match days started at the same time as three draws during the Brier.

However, Shields felt that just made Brandon that much more engaged in sports last week, as there was some buzz around Westoba Place about the Bobcats. Some BU fans made their way to the Patch after their game as well, causing a lineup to get into the Manitoba Room, which had a capacity around 1,500 people.

The success of events in Brandon has not gone unnoticed by Curling Canada. The organization has been impressed by the job the community did to put on the Canada Cup and Brier and would like to come back for future events.

“Certainly. They proved it,” said director of communications and media relations Al Cameron. “There’s a track record here. It’s a great facility. It’s a great market for curling, clearly. We’re all ears, but volunteer burnout is something and sponsor burnout is always on the radar. I’m not suggesting they should bid for next year’s Brier or the 2021 Brier, but certainly when the people in Brandon speak, we’re listening.”

Shields, who sported a 1982 Brier host committee blazer for parts of this year’s event, is proud that Brandon has proven to be a capable host for future curling events. He’s just not sure what the next bonspiel will be, when it will come or what role he’ll play in it.

After helping to put on a major curling event in three of the last five years, Shields is ready to take a step back and spend more time with his wife and kids.

“It’s been a lot of work,” he said. “It’s been a grind for the three of us for the past five or six years now and things have carried through. If there has been a conversation (about hosting future curling events), I haven’t been a part of it at this point, I’ve been pretty focused on this.

“In the immediate future, I think we’re going to enjoy what we’ve done over the last few years. For me, I’m going to spend some time with my family.”

» cjaster@brandonsun.com

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