One of Canada’s most beloved and irreverent sports is coming to the United States for its first international exhibition. Organizers of the 2014 World Financial Group Continental Cup of Curling will be staging their Jan. 16-19 event at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, marking the first time the world championships have been held outside of Canada. Event co-manager Jon Killoran said the move is designed to capture some of the excitement of the Olympic sport leading into the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, Feb. 7-23.
“We saw this as a unique opportunity to grow the sport of curling,” explained Killoran, the CEO of the Reno Tahoe Winter Games Commission, which has partnered with the Canadian Curling Association, the World Curling Federation and the United States Curling Association to bring the 11-year-old event south of the Canadian border.
Curling has been an Olympic sport since 1998 and most curling courts can accommodate up to four matches being played at the same time. Similar to shuffleboard, players slide stones across a sheet of ice toward a target area segmented into four rings — teams utilize brooms and special ice shoes to chase the stone and influence speed and direction.
“I equate it to bowling on ice,” said Darren Davis, GM at Orleans Arena, which is playing host to the event. The Cup will follow the same format as golf’s Ryder Cup — six U.S. and Canadian teams make up Team North America, while six European and Asian teams constitute Team World. The reigning champ is Team North America, which won the 2013 competition held at the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton, B.C., although odds are good in 2014 for Team World, which is stacked with 2014 Olympians Niklas Edin of Sweden, Thomas Ulsrud of Norway and rising 22-year-old Japanese female star Satsuki Fujisawa.
The Team North America lineups will be announced later this year. The 2014 United States Olympic Curling Trials, Nov. 10-17 at Scheels Arena in Fargo, N.D., will decide the men’s and women’s teams, while the Canadian squads will be crowned following the Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings Canadian Curling Trials, Dec. 1-8 as the MTS Centre in Winnipeg.
The Continental Cup of Curling will run four days and organizers are offering a variety of ticketing packages for fans — a large portion are expected to travel in from Canada and Europe. A four-day, all-sessions pass will cost $229, while weekend-only passes will be sold in pairs for $289 per couple. Killoran said his group will offer single-session tickets between $20-$25 as the event gets closer.
Davis said the Cup has already generated 5,000 room nights and $775,000 in ticket sales. The entire event will take place inside the Orleans Arena, which will house four curling lanes “and specialized ice designed for curling. We have to remove our hockey ice and utilize the expertise of a Canadian curling ice professional.”
The goal is to replace the smooth ice used in hockey with a more ripped, rough veneer that will slow the thrust of the curling stone.
Curling caps off a busy run at the building, which also played host to eight days of rehearsals for EDM artist Kaskade prior to his world tour. In April, Orleans Arena hosted the Academy of Country Music Fan Jam and ACM Experience in conjunction with the ACM Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Interviewed for this story: Jon Killoran, (775) 622-3345; Darren Davis, (702) 365-7469