Curling venue too small for Brier

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This article was published 15/02/2010 (6011 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — There’s an irony that the greatest curling competition on the planet will be played in a building that wouldn’t be considered suitable to host a Brier.

But that’s not the point of the 5,600-seat Vancouver Olympic Centre, said the president of the World Curling Federation on Sunday.

"What would we do with 15,000 seats? Hey, it’s at least twice the size of any venue we’ve ever had for our fourth Olympic Games, so we’re doing pretty good," said Les Harrison, a Canadian. "I would have loved to see 15,000 seats and the place sold out and rocking every day. But we all have to realize that curling goes on for 12 days of round-robin and playoff games, and you’re not going to fill a 15,000-seat arena unless you give away the tickets."

Well, that’s a matter of opinion. Considering tickets go for $65 per game, a bigger building could have resulted in lower prices. And besides, noted Canadian Curling Association director of event operations and media Warren Hansen, if you can attract 15,000 to Brier games, why couldn’t you do the same thing at the Olympics?

"With the Olympics in Canada and the strength of curling in this country, I have little doubt that you would fill any size of building you provided," said Hansen. "So it would give more people across this country the opportunity to access the event and set the benchmark for the future of curling at the Olympic level."

And that’s a real concern, considering the venue for Sochi, Russia, in 2014, is a temporary 3,000-seat venue, with the added "bonus," according to the host website, of being portable and moved anywhere in Russia should there be a demand.

Still, the Vanoc priority is a sustainable legacy, and the VOC fits the bill; afterwards, the curling venue will be converted to a smaller hockey rink, and the spectator concourse will become the new home of the Vancouver Curling Club. The community centre also will feature a swimming pool.

Also appealing is the location — close to downtown, close to the action, as opposed to previous Olympic curling venues that were an hour or more away from the host city.

"We’ve longed for that over the last three Olympic Games," said Harrison. "We wanted to be close to the action, close to the IOC, close to the sponsors, so that they can come to the venue and see what they’ve developed along with us. We’re excited about it."

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The players had nothing but glowing praise for the venue as they got their first official look on Sunday (there will be another day of practice today before the curling competition begins Tuesday morning).

"I think the venue is awesome," said Team Canada lead Ben Hebert. "When you walk in and see the Olympic colours and it’s decorated so nicely — you know what? It’s nice to play in the big buildings, but it’s a guarantee that this building is going to be sold out, right? And with the fans so close to you, it makes it that much more intimate. It’s a quality, quality facility."

"I think everybody would have liked to play in a 15,000 or 20,000-seat arena because I’m sure Canada could have filled it and it would have been great to show around the world," added British skip David Murdoch. "But we’re going to have sellouts, it’s tight and I think it’s going to be a noisy stadium. And it definitely feels like an Olympic venue."

— Canwest News Service