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Originally Posted by GirlySports
It's the experience, Curing Canada wants to promote the Brier and the provinces/territories. It's kind of like the Grey Cup, they'll never change it. Canadiana!
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It sounds like there is some pressure from the players to revamp the format a bit. One issue is the duration of the event. It is two weeks off work for these guys and that’s a lot, especially since there is 3 or 4 nothing games for the Gushues and Koes. Last night Mark Kennedy texted his wife during the 5th end break against Nunavut asking her to bring them popcorn. They spent the next three ends sneaking handfuls of popcorn between stones, one of the brothers sat out sweeping a couple of rocks as he hammered popcorn. The last 3 ends Nunavut kept throwing into the rings and Jacobs kept hitting them out. No guards no freezes nothing, I guess keeping it within 10 was their goal and the lees rocks in play the better.
Another thing is Curling Canada is essentially a business. They have played with the format over the years, adding the wildcard teams, adding play in games, adding Team Canada for the men, adding all the territory teams. Starting to scale back is the next move, the Wildcard teams should be here to stay as they add to the higher end competition. Dropping out two wildcard teams and keeping the bottom end provincial teams would be just a dumb idea.
I will offer my overall thoughts/ experience on the Brier soon as I have been involved right from the bid process through to planning, set up, game day and take down. I would also be happy to answer any questions some of you may have about the event.