Welcome to Season of Champions TV!

OTTAWA, September 29, 2009…Curling’s Season of Champions is roaring into a revolutionary era with the introduction of Season of Champions TV (seasonofchampions.ca) – premiering live online Wednesday, October 7 at 7:00 pm MT/9:00 pm ET. Season of Champions TV will ‘bring it all home’ to curling fans across the country throughout the year, starting with a two-hour live webcast from Edmonton – home of the Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings (Canadian Curling Trials) in December. The stars of the inaugural presentation will be the skips of the already-qualified teams for the Roar of the Rings. Edmonton media personalities Jim Jerome and Jackie-Rae Greening will host seven of the elite eight in a live forum, when curling fans will have the opportunity to submit questions online – simply by logging on to seasonofchampions.ca.   It is strongly recommended that fans pre-register their questions. The guest lineup consists of Kevin Martin, Kevin Koe, Randy Ferbey, Jennifer Jones, Shannon Kleibrink, Cheryl Bernard and Stefanie Lawton.  Ontario’s Glenn Howard is unavailable due to work commitments. “The Canadian Curling Association continues to want to reach out to our fans and showcase our events the best way possible,” explained Greg Stremlaw, Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Curling Association.  “We have made it a priority to not only embrace information technology as a very important tool within our business, but also to use it to help bring curling enthusiasts closer to the best curling events and athletes in Canada.” Five of the eight teams which have qualified directly into the Trials hail from Alberta – Edmonton’s Ferbey, Koe and Martin and Calgarians Bernard and Kleibrink.   Jones is from Winnipeg while Lawton is from Saskatoon. The Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings, presented by Monsanto, will be held December 6-13 at Rexall Place and will bring together eight men’s and eight women’s teams seeking to become Canada’s representatives at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.  The current qualifiers will be joined by eight other teams (four men’s and four women’s) advancing from the 2009 Road to the Roar (Pre-Trials) in Prince George, British Columbia, November 10-14. Season of Champions TV is the latest innovation by the Canadian Curling Association to use Internet technology to bring the curling community closer to its championship events and the competitors.  The strategy includes the on-going development of the curling.ca website, the seasonofchampions.ca website, with comprehensive information on all of the Season of Champions events and, of course, live scoring from each championship or event utilizing the CCA’s CurlCast program. Another innovation for the 2009-10 season will be the introduction of AtThePatch.ca, a website dedicated to capturing all the fun and excitement of the Keith’s Patch. The site, to be launched in early November, will feature entertainment information, Up Close and Personal interview sessions and everything else that makes Keith’s Patch the legendary party central for Season of Champions events. -30-