Brad Gushue wrapped up a pretty good week on Sunday. The 35-year-old finished second in the year’s first Grand Slam event, played in front of his home-province fans in Paradise, NL. He and his team received standing ovation after standing ovation as they maneuvered their way through the draw before bowing out to Kevin Koe in the final.
Then, a day later, he was standing in front of a microphone talking to the assembled media, dignitaries and guests as part of the announcement that the 2017 Tim Hortons Brier was coming to St. John’s. It was something he initiated several years earlier with a simple tweet.
“It’s been a pretty interesting week in my curling career,” said Gushue with an understated chuckle.
The fact that Canada’s most easterly province will play host to the biggest rock show in Canadian curling stems from a seed Gushue planted via Twitter back in 2013 at the Brier in Edmonton. During that event, it was announced that the 2014’s championship would be held in Kamloops, B.C.
“If Kamloops can hold the Brier, why not St. John’s?” Gushue tweeted out.
The last – and the only time – the Brier was held in St. John’s was 1972. The event was a much smaller affair back then. There was no Brier Patch, non-stop entertainment or wall-to-wall television coverage. Attendance for the week was 12,890.
But since that time, the curling event grew big time. By the 1990s, the Brier was filling NHL arenas in Edmonton and Calgary with hundreds of thousands of spectators snapping up tickets, and putting it out of reach of smaller markets.
But those days have waned somewhat and the 2011 event in London, Ont., and 2014 in Kamloops marked the start of a new era where smaller centres could once again play host.
“Ten years ago I never would have thought this was possible because every Brier was in Calgary, Edmonton Winnipeg, Saskatoon, places where you’re going to get 15,000 to 18,000 people,” Gushue stated. “I still think they’re going to go to those places, but the way they have it financially structured now it makes it possible to do it [in smaller places]. We have to put up a bit of a guarantee to help compensate for the loss of those 4,000 or 5,000 seats.”
When he got back from that 2013 Brier, a St. John’s city councilor contacted him and asked what it would take to bring the Brier to Newfoundland. A committee was struck and the bid submitted.
“I would say I was probably the initiator,” said Gushue, the 2006 Olympic gold medalist. “Once we got the committee together, to be quite honest, they did most of the work, it not all the work. I was kind of the initiator and the face behind the bid.”
That bid has turned into reality. The 2017 Canadian championship will be hosted in Mile One Centre, which has a seating capacity of about 7,000. About 6,000 seats will be available for each draw when the rink is configured for curling.
In some pre-event marketing, 2,200 people put down deposits for full-week packages, showing the demand seems to be there.
“When we stared the bid, I was wondering if they priced it too high if we’d sell out,” Gushue said. “But what I saw in Paradise last week with zero marketing – they had one billboard – and they sold the place out, 1,200 or 1,500 people every game, there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll be able to sell 6,000 seats for the Brier.”
Part a curling extravaganza and part national party, the Brier should be perfectly placed in St. John’s. When asked to offer up a sales pitch for why someone should come to the 2017 event, Gushue didn’t hesitate.
“George Street, scenery, hospitality – everything Newfoundland has to offer and the Brier. I think Newfoundland in and of itself is a destination to come and visit and then you throw in the Brier. . . put those together and I can’t imagine people not having a good time coming here. I really think it’s going to be a destination Brier.”
Of course Gushue is hoping he will be on the ice in 2017 and not in the stands. He said he’ll likely be a little more nervous playing the 2017 provincial playdowns, a competition he’s won a dozen times. But the chance to play at home is final a reality.
That too, will be an interesting week in his career.
