The COVID-19 pandemic turned down the volume on the roaring game, and if curling is to crank it back up on the ice and change the tone of the bottom line, the sport must attract new voices.
Curling Alberta’s executive director Jill Richard told a task force convened over the summer that the sport is in crisis and clubs will have to work harder and smarter than ever to rebuild membership. With most clubs about to fling open their doors for the 2022-23 season, they have to hurry hard, lest they miss out on another attempt to entice a new generation.
“In summary, curling in general will need to become more diverse, inclusive and welcoming to attract new participants and fans to the sport,” Richard said in an email interview with Postmedia. “While one of the greatest advantages of curling is that it is highly accessible to a variety of people, our current demographics are not yet as diverse as our wider population. Unfortunately, our data indicates that younger people and those who identify as a visible minority are far less likely to participate.”
That’s hardly a surprise to anyone who has played or watched the game. Curling Canada staged a symposium last May in Niagara Falls called Changing the Face of Curling, reinforcing the message that attracting new and young Canadians to the sport is crucial for its survival.
In part, that’s because pandemic-related attrition has eroded the traditional membership base and rendered curling’s dominant demographic — over 50 and Caucasian — even more of a challenge. Jasper Place Curling Club in Edmonton’s west end is down to about 400 members, well off the 600 that would more comfortably sustain the business. Manager Cathy Craig attributes much of the attrition to COVID concerns. The pandemic shut down the 2020-21 season after three weeks, JP lost more members last season, and only now is seeing an uptick in registrations and inquiries for the lucrative one-day corporate ‘spiels that feed the bottom line.
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The club is a non-profit entity that runs on the thinnest of margins. It costs about $50,000 in utilities and insurance to keep the building running through a six-month off-season that produces no revenue, so the goal is always to have that much in the kitty in mid-March. If an expensive piece of ice plant equipment fails, as the compressor did last year, the compounded cash crunch could be lethal.
“I can’t sustain a disaster this year. That’s the way it’s been for a while but we always managed,” said Craig. “Casinos helped us. We get that money every second year. If you had a disaster, you had that casino money kicking around to cover it. But we had a big disaster last year and we had to use that money then and we don’t know when we’ll get another casino because of the (COVID-related) shutdown; all the charities are backed up.”
Alberta’s charitable gaming program delivers as much as $70,000 per club in Edmonton, but JP might not see another windfall until early 2024 because of a COVID backlog. So the financial struggle is real, the need for new curlers greater.
“I don’t know if we can get the people who used to curl to come back,” said Craig. “And it’s always been a far bigger challenge to get new curlers.”
JP usually retained about 80 per cent of members from year to year and attracted enough new curlers to fill most of the void. Societal shifts to other pursuits have shaken the status quo at many rinks, and COVID brought the hammer down.
“In the past we’d send out a membership package in August or whenever and everybody would sign up and your leagues would be full or close to full and you’d have a bit of work to fill those empty spots,” said Darcy Hyde, manager at Crestwood Curling Club, another west end rink in Edmonton. “Now it is not like that at all. Now you need to look for new people. We cannot rely on our aging curlers to fill our leagues.”
An Abacus Data survey from January reinforces that point: 44 per cent of curlers in the province are aged 55 to 75, but only 21 per cent of Albertans are in the same age category. Just 24 per cent of curlers are in the 10 to 40 cohort, the one that makes up 42 per cent of the province’s population.
“This means that our sport could be in real trouble if we don’t fill the pipeline with the next generation of curlers,” Richard said by email … “Clubs that aren’t willing to embrace change and meet the motivations of a new generation of curlers may struggle to keep their doors open over the long-term.”
Clubs are targeting younger curlers by shortening games from eight to six ends to provide more socializing time; allowing unlimited in-game substitutions to accommodate young parents; starting fun leagues that do not keep standings; playing doubles and triples games that make it easier to assemble teams. The efforts are not in vain, as Hyde said the average age of their popular Wednesday fun league is 30. That’s promising. Manager Bob Popil at Thistle Curling Club said new, young curlers are signing up, but it is not a diverse group. That’s a major concern for curling leadership across the country.
Curling Canada provides educational resources and information and conducts research to offer member associations and clubs more ways to make the sport appealing to young and new Canadians and visible minorities. The actual legwork has to be done by club personnel, and they need to adopt a more welcoming, methodical approach to recruiting new members.
“We encourage clubs to reach out and say ‘do you want to try a one-hour, try-curling experience at the curling club?’ We always encourage them to walk a pathway,” said Bobby Ray, Curling Canada’s manager of club development. “We have been really bad at traditionally saying ‘here’s a membership form, it’s going to cost you $500, you’re curling every Tuesday for the next six months.’
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“We want clubs to step new people through a process. Try it for 45 minutes, see what it’s like, and if you like that we can offer you a six-week package where we teach you properly how to curl. If you like that, then we’ve got this half-year program, and if you really like that you can be a member and curl for the rest of your life.”
Curling Alberta lists 183 clubs in the province, and the Edmonton area has the highest per capita concentration with 14. Many of them have the capacity to take on more members, but Richard isn’t worried about their future.
“I don’t think we’ll see clubs in the Edmonton area closing. Most of these clubs are reporting they’re full or facing unmet demand for ice, especially during evenings and weekends. Overall, curling in Edmonton and area is strong and we’ll see continued recovery from COVID.”
However, some club managers including Craig wonder if all Edmonton rinks can survive.
“I’m not sure all the clubs should continue. As much as I don’t want to see anyone fail, none of us are full, so maybe it is time. I think that we’re all kind of hanging on, thinking who will be the first one to go down. Clubs that are typically sold out in May or June are still advertising for members. There’s nobody who says ‘oh, I’m good.’”
Popil said Thistle membership is bouncing back, now up to 600 from a COVID low of about 400, but he would be happier at 800. Hyde said Crestwood’s business is good from Monday through Thursday, but weekend membership is down considerably.
“We are trying some new (weekend) leagues and they have been slow to take off,” said Hyde. “It has been a struggle for sure.”
St. Albert Curling Club manager Nicole Bellamy said their overall membership is also down because of COVID, but they can offset that revenue shortfall through facility rentals which totalled $69,000 in 2016, fell to $55,000 last year, but are bouncing back.
“We can sustain this way but understand our programs have been more full and we’ve had waiting lists. We’ve always had that security and we’re not seeing that anymore,” said Bellamy. “We’re working harder, that’s what we’re doing. We find we are attracting people through our facility rentals. That is really important for us and if I had any advice for curling clubs, get on your MPs and get on your cities to help create a space that can make you more self-supporting.”
St. Albert’s impressive and relatively new clubhouse has air conditioning, which means its 150-seat banquet room can be rented out in July. Most clubs don’t have that luxury. Jasper Place has an ambitious renovation project on the books — it would include air conditioning — and Craig is hopeful that city and provincial grant money could finance as much as 83 per cent of what might be a $3 million tab. That still leaves $510,000 for a shrinking membership to cover.
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“We’re trying to be progressive and be ready,” said Craig. “I think other clubs are looking at it. I know we’re ahead of them in planning.”
Vigilant club managers are always looking to cut costs and drive revenue. And they have gone hat in hand to the city on more than one occasion.
“We’ve all asked over time for help with utilities, which they can’t do,” said Craig. “They can’t help us with Epcor. We’re on our own. So we all pay outrageous amounts. We ask for help with funding but they don’t do that because there is a City of Edmonton operating grant which is $16,000 per year.”
Their utility costs are indeed eye-popping. Craig said JP pays $50,000, the Thistle is $80,000 and St. Albert is $105,000. Popil said the city has to step up and support curling clubs financially, just as it does with rec centres and arenas. Craig said that would solve a lot of problems.
“If the city paid our utilities, there’s my $50,000.”
It’s never that easy. And she appreciates the operating grant from the city, the casino money from the province, wage subsidies from the feds and the 2020-21 registration fees that half the members left in club coffers despite playing just three weeks that season. That’s how the club made it through COVID.
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They are all hopeful that members who left because of the pandemic threat to their health will come back, that new people will discover the fitness and socializing benefits of the game, and that corporate one-offs will fill the coffers again. And club managers are clearly prepared to try anything and everything to bolster membership numbers.
“We’re very optimistic about the state of curling where clubs are open-minded to new approaches and engaging new audiences,” Ray said in an email. “It’s no shortage of hard work, but we’re up to the task and encourage clubs to consult with their associations for support.”
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