By: Nolan Thiessen, Chief Executive Officer, Curling Canada
This summer, I took my son to Disneyland. It was just father and son enjoying the happiest place on earth. Now, everyone knows Disneyland is expensive. People talk about the cost and the price of the trip. Yet millions continue to save for years to take their families there. Every day in any Disney park you could stop someone, and they could tell you a story of saving for this experience.
Why?
Because nobody buys a ticket for the rollercoasters. They buy for the memories. They buy for the photograph in front of the castle or with Walt and Mickey holding hands. They buy for the laughter in their child’s voice or the hug and “THANK YOU FOR BRINGING ME HERE!”
They buy the experience.
People willingly invest in experiences that become part of their story. The interesting thing is that Disney has never tried to become the cheapest amusement park, but they have always tried to become the most memorable.
Those are very different strategies and one we should discuss further.
Chapter five
Grassroots - The Value of Belonging
From affordability to experiences worth choosing.
Affordability doesn’t make memories
Curling has quietly spent generations creating powerful memories. Sure, we aren’t a global brand like Disney, but what’s the value of providing a place for multiple generations to get together and participate, enjoy camaraderie, compete and belong?
Yet we almost never describe ourselves that way.
Instead, we ask questions like, “How do we keep fees low?” Or, “How do we make curling more affordable?” instead of, “How can we improve the experience?”
As we said earlier, curling is never going to be the most expensive sport to play. It should never be. But we shouldn’t compete for everyone’s discretionary dollars on price alone, because affordability has never been why people fall in love with curling.
Nobody tells their grandchildren, “The league fees were remarkably reasonable, so I started playing.”
Instead, they remember curling in school with their friends. They remember their first bonspiel. They remember meeting a friend at the rink or having their parents teach them how to slide. They remember travelling across the country with their teammates. They can recall with shocking accuracy the situation and use all the saltshakers and the ketchup bottles necessary to show you the shot they made! They remember the friendships that lasted a lifetime.
It’s about the feeling of belonging somewhere. Nobody falls in love with affordability only.
People come for the game and may show up first because it is affordable. But they stay because they find a community.
This will undoubtedly be one of the hardest shifts for our sport to embrace.
For generations we have rightly been proud that curling has remained accessible through affordability. Affordability matters and it always will. But unfortunately somewhere along the way, affordability seemed to quietly become our identity.
When we describe ourselves primarily as affordable, we unintentionally tell people that our greatest advantage is only price. Yet if all we are is price, when something comes along that is cheaper, we have already given agency to go to that activity as all we are providing is a low-cost activity.
Very few successful service organizations compete on price alone. The best compete on value; value through quality, reliability, innovation, experience, and trust. That’s an important distinction. People happily pay a little more for things that improve their lives or they find value in.
It’s not because they enjoy spending money but because they believe what they receive is worth far more than what they spend.
That is how people think about travel or family vacations or sport.
They’re all … experiences.
Curling is the experience we provide, so how we compete should be no different.
If you were to ask most club managers and leaders the remarkably simple question, “What business are you actually in?”, most would answer, “We’re in the curling business.”
Simplistically we might be that but the business that we’re actually in is so much more. We happen to use curling as the backbone of everything we do.
We’re really in the business of creating healthier communities. Building friendships. Developing confidence. Helping children discover resilience. Giving seniors a reason to stay active. Creating volunteers and leaders. Strengthening families. Reducing isolation. Supporting mental health. Creating places where people know your name and a place you always feel at home.
Wouldn’t you want to contribute to that?
Curling is how we accomplish those things. I always feel a sense of calm and comfort in a curling club. Not because I get to go out there and throw a few guards and slide up and down the sheet but because I feel at home. That is the ultimately value that curling provides.
Imagine two clubs.
The first proudly advertises,
“The lowest league fees in town.”
The second says,
“The place where your family will create memories that last a lifetime.”
Which club is talking about price, and which club is talking about value?
Which club would you want to go into?
For years we have worried that increasing prices might discourage participation. Sometimes that concern is justified. And this chapter is not just a diatribe about fee increases, or need for investment from funders and the need for them all to fund operations.
Canada will always have room for affordable curling because financial barriers are real and ever increasing. But affordability and value are not opposites.
The question isn’t, “Should curling be affordable?” because of course it should. The better question is, “How do we make curling so valuable that communities, governments, sponsors and participants all recognize it as one of the best investments they can make?”
That changes the conversation completely and is in line with where Canada is going. We all see the increased focus on nation-building and providing healthy communities and we should be front of the line sharing the value that we provide, the nation-building system that we are, and value it accordingly.
This shift reaches far beyond club dues or MA dues or Curling Canada dues.
It changes how we design programs and how we welcome newcomers. It changes how we communicate and evaluate success. It changes how we market events and how we advocate with all levels of government.
Everything begins with one question:
What experience are we trying to create?
People rarely remember programs, but they remember the experiences they’ve had.
I have this Maya Angelou quote hanging on my wall because it’s so important to always remember.
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Perhaps The Future of Canadian Curling depends less on perfect programming and more on unforgettable feelings.
Ensuring that everyone feels welcomed. That those that want to just participate have that chance and those that want to compete have that chance. But everyone feels respected, included, proud, connected and feel like they belong inside our walls.
That is what we are chasing. And I would say that is what we’ve always tried to do but never fully articulated.
If we succeed at that then everything else follows.
For those of you in the curling system, question time. How many times has your organization asked the question, “Will this make the experience better?”
Not easier.
Not cheaper.
Better.
Because better experiences attract more people. Better experiences retain strong staff and volunteers. Better experiences justify increased investment.
Better experiences strengthen communities and better experiences create lifelong curlers.
That’s why this first critical shift matters so deeply.
It’s not about raising prices. Curling is not a sport that is built on price elasticity. It’s about recognizing that curling’s greatest asset has never been its affordability.
Its greatest asset has always been the extraordinary experience it quietly creates every day in communities across Canada from coast to coast to coast and that feeling of belonging we can provide.
When we begin to see ourselves that way, everything else changes. We stop selling ice time and we begin creating places where people build their lives.
Reflection
- If someone asked why curling matters, what would your first answer be?
- What memories has curling given you that no amount of money could buy?
- Does your club measure participation, or does it measure belonging?
- If someone visited your club for the first time, what story would they tell when they got home?
- What would change if you asked the question, “Will this create an experience worth remembering?”
In our next Chapter we will delve into High-Performance and the discipline of being a champion.
The future of Canadian curling podcast - Episode 5
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