Steinbach hits it out of the park as Grand Slam host

STEINBACH —The Grand Slam of Curling hasn’t even left town yet and they’re already thinking about coming back to Steinbach.

“It’s got that wow factor walking in here,” said Jenni Cram, the GSOC’s communications director on Day 1 of the Players’ Championship inside the Southeast Event Centre.

Tuesday marked the GSOC’s return to Manitoba ice for the first time in eight years. With the $75-million arena opening in August and now being an option, the world’s best curlers might find themselves chowing down on Mennonite classics such as Vereniki and Schinka Fleisch a lot more frequently.

“We’ve been eager to come back to Manitoba. It’s been far too long, but it was a matter of finding the right venue,” said Cram.

“It was early in 2025 that it came to our attention that this venue was almost ready to go. We did a site visit, and it checked all our boxes. We’re very happy to be back, particularly in this venue. It’s the perfect space for hosting a Slam. And certainly, with the crowd response that we’ve received and the volunteer response, we’d like to come back a lot sooner. We won’t see that (eight-year) gap again.”

The building seats 2,430 fans for curling and is trending towards selling out this weekend.

When the GSOC floated the idea out to the home of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Steinbach Pistons, they quickly responded with a resounding yes.

“To showcase what this building is capable of I think is really important because I think it can help grow sport in Manitoba, and even events in Manitoba,” said Michelle Sawatzky-Koop, communications director at the Southeast Event Centre.

“We’re really proud to say ‘Yes, come to Steinbach.’ We’ve spent all our years as rural kids and adults driving to the big city of Winnipeg, and we still will, and we still love that, and lots of great things happen there. But now we have something to showcase where literally the world is seeing our space. It’s really cool.”

With more than half the field gearing up to represent their countries at next month’s Olympics in Italy, Steinbach is getting a unique opportunity to see the very best the sport has to offer.

“A lot of talk has been around how we’re gonna watch (these curlers) in Steinbach this week, and in one month, you’re going to be sitting in your living room going, ‘I saw Rachel Homan in the concourse at the Southeast Event Centre,’” said Sawatzky-Koop.

“I think it’s kind of surreal in the moment even though it’s actually started. That’s actually Brad Jacobs out there, that’s actually Kerri Einarson, like, that’s actually them. And with how many teams are here from around the world, that’s really cool, it just doesn’t happen a lot here. And now, we’re hoping it happens a whole lot more.”

The only knock is there aren’t many hotel rooms available in the town of 20,000-plus. Most teams are staying in Winnipeg, or in nearby AirBnBs. If Steinbach can get another hotel or two built, events such as the Brier, Scotties or even the World Juniors as a No. 2 rink are more likely to be on the horizon.

“How exciting is that? Just the development of that is going to bring in more people and create more jobs,” said Sawatzky-Koop.

“Any time Steinbach has made the news it’s been like this little town and the Bible Belt, and we’re proud of that, too. That’s great, but we’re so much more than that. The multiculuralism in Steinbach is massive. All the different cultures, I’m so proud of that. I was born and grew up in Steinbach and it has changed so much and has become so much more inclusive and so welcoming, and I just think that that’s important for us as a city to open our minds, our hearts, and our arms to people from around the world… That is one of the main reasons why I wanted to be involved in this building.”

Dunstone edges McEwen

The battle of Winnipeg skips went to a shootout.

With Matt Dunstone and Mike McEwen deadlocked 5-5 through eight ends, the two locals were forced to decide the main event of the late draw with a draw-to-the-button challenge and Dunstone prevailed by a hair to secure a 6-5 victory.

The shootout is only used during round-robin play. In the playoffs games will extend to extra ends.

“It was nice to come out on the right side of it for the first time. I think we’re 0-2 in the shootout going into that one,” said Dunstone.

“It was an awesome evening. Crowd was great. A resilient effort, and a win we needed coming off a very tough slam (in Saskatoon).”

Gimli’s Kerri Einarson dropped her opening game 12-7 to South Korea’s Eun ji Gim earlier in the day. Ottawa’s Rachel Homan outlasted Sweden’s Isabella Wrana 5-4 at night, and Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs fell 6-3 to Scotland’s Ross Whyte in the afternoon.

The action continues today with four draws: 8:30 a.m.,12 p.m., 4 p.m., then 8 p.m.

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