Another marquee event that was scheduled to happen in Estevan has been wiped out due to COVID-19.
CurlSask announced on Dec. 2 that it was cancelling the Viterra Scotties Provincial Women’s Curling Championship and the SaskTel Tankard Provincial Men’s Curling Championship, scheduled to take place consecutively at Affinity Place from Jan. 29-Feb. 7, 2021.
The initial news release said events were cancelled outright, but CurlSask later said the events wouldn’t be happening in Estevan. A decision has not been made on how CurlSask would crown its provincial champions.
“Under current public health orders this championship was no longer feasible nor financially responsible to attempt to host,” said Ashley Howard, CurlSask’s executive director. “Estevan has served as a first-class host community for a number of events including the 2018 SaskTel Tankard and 2018 Home Hardware Canada Cup of Curling.
"Given the success of past championships hosted by the community of Estevan, our team will not hesitate to return to Estevan when it is safe and responsible to do so.”
Tyler McMillen, who was the event chair for the Scotties-Tankard, said that with the tighter restrictions that came into effect on Nov. 27, it became even tougher to host the event. Games for team sports were suspended on Nov. 27 and won’t be lifted until at least Dec. 17. Arenas are now limited to 30 people.
“We’ve been following, watching to see what hockey does and other sports for letting fans in. I’ve had a nerve-wracking kind of fall here, just watching how things transpired, and CurlSask was working day-in, day-out, trying to get answers and clarification, and when things started to go the wrong direction, I feared the worst.”
It wasn’t responsible to try to host a large event and bring people from across the province into the community.
Having playdowns was also going to be a challenge, since some qualifiers were already cancelled, and southern qualifiers were scheduled for early 2021.
Prior to the Nov. 27 restrictions, the Estevan Curling Club was still hopeful provincials could be held in Estevan. They were in discussions with CurlSask on how it might look, but they knew the event wouldn’t be quite as big.
Concepts such as Junior Stars, which partners up local young players with teams, and busing in kids from schools to watch the morning draws likely weren’t going to happen. But they were still hopeful that they could have a competition that would bring up to 24 teams to the city over the 10 days.
“It was disappointing that the (COVID) numbers started to creep up, but we understand health and safety has to come first,” said McMillen.
Plans for the event were coming along well despite the pandemic. They had a committee in place with people who had been part of the 2018 Tankard and Canada Cup, but they also had some new members involved.
“There was lots of energy and hopefulness and things like that, so when we had to deliver that news to our community group, they were disappointed but understood, but most of them will be ready to go when we get the go-ahead again,” said McMillen.
There had been a fundraiser this summer in which a crop was harvested northeast of Estevan, with proceeds being split between the Scotties-Tankard and the 2022 Centennial Cup national hockey tournament. Most sponsorships were going to be through ticket sales to get more people in the stands, rather than going door to door to seek money from businesses struggling financially.
“It was an exciting strategy, and I was looking forward to seeing how it would play out, and I think that we will throw our support behind the Centennial Cup committee now,” said McMillen.
In the news release, CurlSask said Estevan would be given first right of refusal for the 2021-22 curling season. Since Estevan is scheduled to host the Centennial Cup in 2022, the curling club will look to host the Scotties-Tankard in 2023. If Estevan doesn’t get to host the Centennial Cup in 2022, then the curling club would look to host the two provincial events in 2022.
McMillen said the curling club doesn’t want to host provincials in the same year that Estevan has a national hockey tournament. It would be asking a lot of sponsors and volunteers.
