Business of Curling
Remember last February when curling took the world by storm?
Earlier this year, Warren Hansen (CCA Director, Event Operations) wrote an article in the Extra End magazine (delivered to all the buildings in our country). The article focused on the “frugality”
More often than not, many curling facilities ‘react’ to need rather than preparing simple, medium-range plans to guide their future.
Curl BC and the CCA held a Business of Curling Symposium in Vernon, BC the weekend of October 15-17 and some interesting ideas emerged that bear sharing.
The curling season is underway and curlers are back in our buildings. Now that we are busy again, it is worthwhile to have a discussion about beer, one of our more important product lines in the business of curling.
Dr. Heather Mair is a professor at the University of Waterloo in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies. This past curling season, she prepared an issue paper – with the support of the Toronto Curling Association, the Canadian Curling Association and the University of Waterloo – to investigate issues of diversity facing the sport of curling in Toronto.
Last week, I mentioned many clubs were not producing their own web pages or establishing a Facebook presence. I will re-state that it is extra work for a volunteer group already a tad overworked, however, this is no longer a fad but an application that has woven itself into our everyday lives.
It’s getting close to the time where we will be dropping the puck to get another curling season underway. With the excitement of the Vancouver Olympics still in our rear view mirrors and many new Canadian curlers anxious to get on the ice and give it a whirl, as Board members, managers and ice staff, we must ensure that we have our ‘superior customer service’ hats on nice and tight.
I have always found it fascinating how little our buildings get used in the off-season or non-curling time and how they sit there, generating little if any revenue in the off-season.
About ten years ago, I attended a one day seminar on getting and keeping members presented by Mark Levin. Mr. Levin, who specializes in membership development, left us with these gems on how to “get and keep” members.
Here is a true story from a new curler who tried to join our sport. Her name and the name of the clubs and city have been left out to avoid the embarrassment.
On November 22 from 1 -4 p.m., the Victoria (B.C.) Curling Club was a beehive of activity as 340 area residents were exposed to the sport of curling!
The 2009-2010 curling season is now fully underway at most buildings in our country and this particular season is arguably the most important in the history of our sport.
A few years ago now, Dr. Heather Mair of the Department of Recreation and Leisure started attending the CCA’s National Curling Congress to begin the process of gathering information for her study then simply known as a paper on the impact of curling clubs on rural communities.
I can pretty much guarantee that every curling facility in Canada suffers from ‘picked’ rocks during recreation play as well as what you see and hear on television from the elite players. Picks are a pain and often spoil a good game or causes a team to lose.
True Sport Movement
