Nolan’s Notes: New GSOC event adds ‘elite’ identity
By Nolan Thiessen
This past weekend saw the close of the 2013-14 curling season. This has been a season that many will talk about well into the future; between the uber-competitive Olympic Trials in December, the drama of the Olympic Games, the excitement of the Scotties and the Brier playdowns and the end of the year musical chairs in the men’s game. Fans of curling have been able to sink their teeth into juicy stories throughout the season.
However, now that the season is done, and the teams for next season have been announced, it is time to look towards 2014-15. This past weekend Sportsnet made an exciting announcement that they are adding a fifth Grand Slam event which was met with rave reviews by the players.
The fifth event will take place March 18-22, 2015, in Fort McMurray, Alberta, and will be known as the “Elite 10”. I, for one, love the idea of a different format for this event as it will provide this Grand Slam with brand identity.
Look at the majors in golf, each of them have an identity. Whether it is the Masters being held at the same place every year in Augusta, the mental challenge that is the U.S. Open or the links style tournament across the pond for the Open Championship, every event has a distinct identity. Creating a Grand Slam series event that is more selective, the 10 best teams from around the world in a different format than the Slams normally feature, will create brand identity and differentiate this new event. Players will be excited to play in this exclusive event as it will provide elite status to those who make the “Elite 10” and hopefully the fans get as excited as us for the best of the best under one roof.
Adding another Slam means more curling on TV and shows the health of our sport. With the increase in social media, live sports are becoming broadcasters’ most valuable property. With the amount of access to real-time results through sports tickers, websites like CurlingZone or social media circles, fans no longer PVR sporting events to watch later. They watch these sporting events live, which is great for broadcasters who pay for their TV programming through advertisements. It is awfully hard to fast forward through live commercials!
Curling has been able to find a piece of that programming action by providing strong and growing ratings for years and providing value to programmers like Sportsnet. We as players can take pride in the fact that our games on TV are providing entertainment to the fans and have kept them coming back for more. The fans of this game love watching curling and Rogers is giving them what they want: more live action on TV.
A fifth Grand Slam means many things to us players, including added TV coverage for our sponsors, which will help all teams market themselves, but I think most importantly it shows that Sportsnet believes in curling and the Grand Slam series. When the announcement was made this past November that Sportsnet was taking over the entire NHL package in Canada, as exclusive rights holders, it was met with caution by the curlers. Selfishly we wondered about our baby, the Grand Slam series, and whether Rogers was going to have to put us on the backburner now that there was a significant increase in their live hockey coverage.
Nevertheless, they have shown that they are invested in growing the game of curling, by not only increasing the amount of live coverage of each of the four current Grand Slams last year, but also increasing the number of events they are going to be putting on for us players. It is nice to know that the owners of the series believe in the sport and want it to grow as much as we do.
So enjoy your summer curling fans; enjoy the NHL playoffs, the MLB season, the golf course, or the cabin, whatever it is you do during our short Canadian summers, because curling will be back very soon. Next season will be upon us in no time with even more live coverage to entertain you and to attempt to quench those curling needs!