THUNDER BAY – With four months to go until the 2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts is set to open, organizers say they’re planning for a full-capacity event at Fort William Gardens.
Marcy Hrechkosy, event manager for Curling Canada, said that’s the plan for now, acknowledging it could change down the road if public health measures don’t permit crowds of that size to gather indoors for sporting events.
“All of our events across the board, we are planning for full capacity. As we know, the way things have gone, we don’t know what’s happening next week as opposed to four months from now,” Hrechkosy said on Wednesday, in Thunder Bay for a tour of the newly renovated Gardens and meetings with the local organizing committee.
“So for planning purposes, we plan for the best-case scenario, cautiously optimistic. We have all of our safety protocols in place and it’s easier to scale back as needed, rather than start with the contingency plan and then add on.”
It’ll be great to have fans back in the building, she added, after a year spent in a championship bubble.
“I think it will be a celebration to be back in a venue, seeing live sports, people curling on the ice,” Hrechkosy said. “I was in the bubble last year, seeing the curling without fans was really a lacking component to the sport. It will be great to have everyone back together.”
It’ll be a new-look Gardens when fans are allowed back in.
Upgrades have been made throughout the 70-year-old building, including new lighting, improvements to the press box area and fresh coats of paint. Crews are also working to install the new scoreboard, part of more than $1 million in renovations made ahead of next year’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts. A digital marquee will also be installed outside the Gardens.
“The building is older than some of the facilities we’ve hosted at in the past, but it has everything we need to pull off a successful event. It’s got a lot of charm and a lot of charisma. It’s going to be sort of a classic feel, but it’s going to be great and have a wonderful atmosphere,” she said.
“Once we get the ice in, dress up the boards, bring in all of our electronic scoreboards, it’s going to look fantastic.”
Diane Imrie, a co-chair of the local organizing committee, said she got chills seeing the work being done, adding there’s still plenty of buzz in the community about the event, expected to inject $7 million into the local economy, after being postponed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was really exciting to see the old barn, as we call it. It was built in 1951 and it’s 70 years old this year, and they have just given it a facelift, which is fantastic. It’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint will do.
On the planning front, organizers are still looking for about 200 volunteers to sign up, most of whom are needed to staff the Patch, the beer garden and live entertainment venue that will be taking over the Fort William Curling Club for the duration of the event.
Hrechkosy also announced Curling Canada will soon release single-draw tickets to the general public. The event is scheduled to run from Jan. 28 to Feb. 6., with full vaccination required.
“Right now, full-event packages are on sale and championship weekend packages are on sale. Our opening weekend packages and some premium single-draw tickets, including Northern Ontario versus Canada, will be on sale Oct. 21,” she said.
“That’s going to be a big draw for the community to see their local team play Team Canada. And we’ll be opening the rest of the single-draw tickets in November.”
