Pebble’s ’Original Six’ ready to rock

The world’s first professional curling league is hoping to change the future of the sport.

The Curling Group — the owners of the Grand Slam of Curling — announced back in the spring their intentions to start the Rock League and, on Tuesday, they revealed the 30 men and 30 women from around the globe who will make up the six teams of 10 (five men and five women) who will compete.

Curling legends and competition advisors Jennifer Jones and John Morris were tasked with selecting the 60 players and splitting them into their respective groups.

“It’s been over the course of a year where we’ve gone back and forth in trying to formulate the teams with new, energizing talent, and some names that have been around for a long time,” said Jones in an interview with the Free Press.

“So, it was a really fun and interesting process, also very difficult, but I’m really happy with how it turned out.”

It was announced Thursday that Year 1 will be a single event — April 6-12, 2026, at the Mattamy Athletic Centre on the Toronto Metropolitan University campus. The first full season kicks off in January 2027 with competitions in Moose Jaw, Sask., Halifax, Utica, N.Y., and Ottawa before a playoff tournament takes place in April of that year at a yet-to-be announced location.

“It’s something different and exciting. For me as an athlete, I’m loving the idea,” said four-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts winner Kerri Einarson.

“I know in the public eye, they might not enjoy it because they like the traditional (curling schedule). But you know, change is good. They’ll get to see other sides of athletes that they don’t necessarily get to see, and even different formats. It might take a while for the public to catch onto it and get it, but I think it’ll be really good and something that can grow.”

Next April in Toronto will feature five days of round-robin action with each game having two teams battling in men’s, women’s and mixed doubles. Whichever side prevails in at least two of the three disciplines will earn the victory. Then on the final day of the round robin, each franchise will field two teams of mixed fours with each game being worth one win.

The top four clubs will advance to the semifinals, and the big winners in the end will split a cheque for $250,000.

“It’s very different. I’m still trying to gather information to wrap my head around it all just given how new it actually is to our sport,” said Winnipeg’s Matt Dunstone.

“We’ve never had anything remotely like it. But it’s a very neat idea. From an expectations standpoint, it’s one of those things that you don’t really know what to expect… In curling, a lot of things are repetitive, and this obviously isn’t. I think it’s always exciting to try new things.”

One of the many unique aspects of the upstart league is the fact that it will give players from different countries a chance to be teammates. The talent on the six squads — the Alpine Curling Club (Europe), the Typhoon Curling Club (Asia-Pacific), Maple United (Canada), the Frontier Curling Club (USA), the Shield Curling Club (Canada) and Northern United (Europe) — are comprised of at least 60 per cent of players from that specific region. Each team also has a general manager who boasts ties to the region they’ll be representing on their jacket. Their job is to manage the roster, coach, and handle day-to-day operations.

It’s an interesting concept on paper, but what needs to happen for this to be an actual success?

“I think it’s actually very simple,” said Dunstone.

“We look at any other professional sport, naturally people from Winnipeg are going to cheer for the Winnipeg Jets, and that’s no different with this. Obviously, there’s superstar players involved, but to me, that only gets you so far. You need to find a way to make these brands meaningful from a geographical standpoint. So, for me, it’ll be about telling the story of these brands and getting fans to buy into all the team names and the purpose of those team names that they made up for us.”

Jones is hopeful that after the first stone gets thrown, the Rock League will be one of many milestones for the sport and that this can evolve into something special.

“In a dream world we have so many franchises, they play year-round, and you can buy more than raspberries at the store,” said Jones with a laugh.

“Hopefully this is an opportunity for these incredible athletes to make a living doing this and we just see the growth of the game around the world. Curling is strong in Canada, and it is strong and growing in so many other countries, but we’d really like it to be at the forefront and really have longevity for years to come.”

winnipegfreepress.com/taylorallen