Nolan’s Notes: What curling needs to become professional
By Nolan Thiessen
Many fans consider the curlers they see on TV as being “professional curlers.” Do you realize that the total prize money for all World Curling Tour events for 2014-15 is approximately $1.8 million?
That total purse for the WCT is a little north of what each of the four major winners in golf pocketed . . . for their ONE win (the Masters, U.S. Open, British and PGA Championship winners each took home around $1.5 million. Tennis major winners each earn north of $2 million to win). Curling clearly has a long way to go to be considered truly “professional.”
I by no means am suggesting that curling should strive to get prize money to that level right away as that type of a jump is just too unrealistic to produce in a short period of time. However, I know players and stakeholders in various curling platforms have asked the question: can we make curling a truly professional sport? Selfishly, I sure hope so.
I may not be around to reap the rewards one day as I don’t see myself playing at the highest levels well into my 40s, but I sure would love to say I was in the room when the ideas were hatched that got us to that point. I know I have a few ideas of what it will take. I definitely do not have all the answers, but I’d love to start the discussion:
Find a tour model that works
The tour needs to find a model that supports not only strong events but stimulates the growth of new events that have staying power. Losing events like Brooks this year, New Westminster a few years ago or the old Welton Beauchamp in Ottawa is not good for business. The reason for their hiatuses or outright demises are too numerous to discuss but we need to protect all of these events. The total number of events should be rising not decreasing.
One model that works is the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) model. Their events are broken down into Slams, 1000, 500 and 250 level events. Depending on their ranking, players are required to play in a certain number of each level in order to keep their tour card.
Creating a system where curling teams, including the top 10, have to play in a certain number of lower level events will generate a system where smaller events can survive. These smaller events can then attract one or two top teams that can sell tickets for the organizers but also have the space to fill the remaining spots in the event. Teams outside the top 10 will not be scared away if there are only one or two top teams there. Get six to eight top 10 teams there and teams nine through 32 on the draw feel like donators; that isn’t good for anybody.
Creating this model also generates more cohesion throughout the tour with events being able to know where they stand and how they fit into the grand scheme of the WCT.
Translating TV ratings into TV sponsorships
Most people have heard the numbers. Curling games regularly draw around 400,000 to one million viewers on TV. Why doesn’t that equate into TV sponsorships that could drive the purses higher and higher?
The Web.com Tour (the feeder system for the PGA, not even the elite golfers) is only featured on the Golf Channel and gets less than 50,000 viewers for their events. In related news, Canadian Adam Hadwin topped their money list this year with over $500,000 in earnings. The math doesn’t seem to add up. Why is curling not a bigger seller to the large corporations?
I am not a TV demographic guru, but my guess is the age category curling is winning is not what most companies with the deep pockets are looking for. Whatever the issue is, we as curlers need to find a way to appeal to a younger demo and start translating those TV numbers into sponsorships if we ever truly want to be professional.
Who’s our Arnold Palmer vs. Jack Nicklaus?
The PGA took off in the 1960s and 70s when Arnold Palmer captured the imagination of the viewing public and then had the perfect foil when the “Golden Bear” came along. Arnie was the “everyman” whose swing often resembled a broken gate but the results spoke for themselves. Jack came along and was the blond All-American with a portly figure and gigantic drives. The PGA Tour became a bonafide sports entity behind these two behemoths.
To this day golf is driven by their athletes, particularly Tiger Woods. Tiger has a massive following of fans who love his game, and just as many who want him to fail in grand fashion. Some love him and some hate him, but when he is on and particularly when he is in the hunt they all WATCH him. I remember my mom watching golf in the early 2000s because Tiger was in the hunt. My mom has probably swung a golf club five times in her life.
Is there someone out there who can capture the general public’s imagination, not just the curling fan’s imagination?
USA winning the Olympics
This will probably be looked at as sacrilege to say and it is something Canadian curling fans may not want to hear but it just might be what we need to push curling over the top and make the tour a viable professional sports entity.
The population of the United States is somewhere around 318 million. Canada, Sweden, Norway, Scotland, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark and Russia have a population of roughly 293 million combined.
Clearly the biggest base for growth in our sport is the United States. Look at the support they provide for not only the Big 4 sports but also the ATP, WTA, PGA, NASCAR, etc. The corporate community supports sports in the United States at record levels and that support is what we need to tap into.
Historically, curling gets very good ratings in the United States during the Olympics. Unfortunately for them and for the Olympic coverage provider down there, the men’s and women’s teams have a combined 7-29 record over the past two Olympics.
If their teams could ever turn that around, consistently get in the hunt for medals at the world championships and then make a run in the next Olympics, it could be what we really need to entice larger corporations south of the border to support our sport and enable curling to actually become “professional.”
So curling fans, what do you think? What do we need for curling to become indeed “professional?”