The SaskTel Tankard is so close, one can almost hear the top men’s curlers in the province urging their sweepers.
Place for the Tankard, which will take place Jan. 31 to Feb 4 at Affinity Place, have been underway for over a year and are now nearly all in place.
“It’s hard to believe it’s almost here,” said Tankard planning committee co-chair Helen Fornwald. “The community support has been completely overwhelming. We’re getting lots of people to sign up for volunteer shifts, it’s outstanding. People are purchasing tickets, we’ve had some really good response with our sponsorship and we’re getting geared up for our entertainment in the Patch.”
The event will bring the 16 best men’s curling rinks to the city from across Saskatchewan for the honour of representing Saskatchewan at the Tim Hortons Brier in March.
“We want everybody to come out to our opening ceremonies on Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 5:30 (p.m.),” said Fornwald. “We want to welcome the 16 teams to our city and the junior stars and our curlers as they parade out with those teams. We’re pretty excited.”
With everything nearly complete,
“We’re just fine-tuning schedules now and fine-tuning when the icemaker comes down,” Fornwald said. “That transformation from hockey and figure skating ice into curling is much different. (So we’re) fine-tuning schedules and turning that whole area into four sheets of curling ice with the requirement of what Curling Saskatchewan has.”
There are specific logos to put in on the sheets of ice that will need to go up, as well as carpet getting put in and glass along the boards taken out.
Volunteers can still contact [email protected] or visit the Power Dodge Curling Centre.
For the rush seating tickets, event passes are $80 each, day passes are $20 and evening passes are $10. There are also corporate passes, that are 10 day passes for $175., available to buy.
“And then we’ve got luncheon tickets for the public available for $30,” she said.
Tickets to the patch are $10 at the door or free with a curling ticket. Live bands will play Friday and Saturday nights.
“We encourage everybody to come out and meet the curlers and watch the live entertainment at the patch,” Fornwald said.
