Is the Safeway bonspiel too big?

Posted: 3:00 AM CST Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015

BRANDON -- It's a bulky undertaking, this 32-team, two-phased double-knockout Safeway Championship.

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BRANDON -- It's a bulky undertaking, this 32-team, two-phased double-knockout Safeway Championship.

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This article was published 04/02/2015 (4132 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — It’s a bulky undertaking, this 32-team, two-phased double-knockout Safeway Championship.

Would it be better as a 16-team event? Or 12? Or some other number?

We put the question to the three top-seeded skips on Tuesday.

Mike McEwen: “I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. I don’t have an answer for you yet… because I’m probably not the best person to ask for that. But I think the group we have here, it would be interesting to see, outside of Jeff (Stoughton), myself, Reid (Carruthers), and some of the other top seeds, what about all the other guys? What do they want a provincial experience to be? It’s as much about them as anything. Sure we’re the top seeds and favourites to be in the playoffs, but what does it mean to the other half of the field or so about having that underdog chance? What do they want it to feel like?

“Maybe Curl Manitoba is asking those questions already. I’m not sure the 32-team system is broken but I’d be the first person to say maybe there could be a better system. I would say we should start asking questions: What do the competitors want? And then mesh that with what the sponsors need as well.

“I hope they’re asking. I don’t know that 32 is the answer anymore. It might still be. And it’s not just about what I want. That may be very different from what the average competitor in this field wants. But I think some questions need to be asked about that. Maybe they’re already asking.”

Jeff Stoughton: “I think you’d have to go to maybe eight. And I think you could do a round-robin that way and the teams that get in at least get their seven games. Everyone still has issues with round-robins because at the end of the week, you might have a couple of games that are meaningless. And that’s the beauty of this, that every game matters.

“So you could also do like Alberta, where it’s a triple knock-out until you get to the final again. Everyone wants that sudden-death final. Used to be here that you could get to the final and the other team had to beat you twice. I don’t know if it’s worth getting it down. The format’s not that bad. If you win out, you win seven in a row. In Alberta, you win out you win five. Apparently in Newfoundland if you win out, you win three because there’s only two teams in the event and it’s a best-of-five.

“I don’t know how you could restructure it to make it smaller. I really don’t like the 16-team ladies and juniors, two pools of eight. I think that’s a really bad format.

“But you know what, we have 32 teams here and I still stay we’re a very strong province because we’ve got participation. You have to win a region or zone or a bonspiel to get in. And lots of teams are still participating trying to get in. I think Manitoba’s got to be proud of that.”

Reid Carruthers: “I would (like it) but it would kind of take away from what this event is all about. It’s 32 teams and it’s a long grind and a preparation for the Brier, getting lots of games in before going to the Brier if you’re the team that wins.

“But also if you are one of the teams ranked 16 to 32, it’s a good event for them to come out, to get some games, to get on a good roll and win up to the final four and have a lot to talk about.”

— Tim Campbell