As The Grand Slam Curling World Turns

As another curling season begins to end—the world mixed doubles are still on tap—there’s a feeling of eras coming to a close.

Jennifer Jones just finished her final women’s team tournament in Toronto, the Princess Auto Players’ Championship. 

Much has been written about her departure—since her retirement announcement, during the STOH (by none other than rival skip Chelsea Carey), and in the days that followed (and followed).

Jones, of course, will continue competing in mixed doubles with husband Brent Laing. More on her in a moment.

Over at Curling Canada, a fresh era is in full gear with a new primary sponsor as well as a new CEO who, for the first time ever, has played the sport at the high-performance level.

Both developments are refreshing, even if the former occasion means a certain breakfast restaurant isn’t involved in the Roaring Game for the first time in—what, 35 years?

Some curling eras are ending far too prematurely. Heading into this season, the list of recent young retirements in women’s high-performance curling was astonishing.

We lost Switzerland’s Elena Stern at age 26 and Melanie Barbezat at 29.

Scotland’s women ranks have suffered greatly. Many of Eve Muirhead’s former teammates quit after PyeongChang 2018—Anna Sloan at 26, Vicki Chalmers at 28 and Lauren Gray at 29—and then three of five dropped out after winning gold at Beijing 2022, including Muirhead herself.

Vicki Wright was 28 and alternate Mili Smith just 24. And despite packing a lifetime of curling experience and glory into her career, Muirhead was only 31 when she called it quits.

Canada, too, has seen many departures in recent years. Team Homan’s Joanne Courtney quit at age 31. Mackenzie Zacharias left the Jones team—which she used to skip—and hasn’t returned; she’s 24.

Just this month we learned that Manitoba’s Meghan Walter (Team Cameron) and Saskatchewan skip Skylar Ackerman are done.

Both competed at the Scotties in February. Both are just 22 years of age.

Most shocking of all is the tale of Nova Scotia skip Mary Fay, who won eight provincial championships, a world junior title and a Winter Youth Olympic gold medal all by age 18… and then walked away.

Sure, this has been a problem for decades—but it suddenly seems acute. Perhaps curling mandarins should take serious notice. Perhaps more opportunities and funding can be increased, particularly at the younger developmental level.

All this brings us to the Grand Slam of Curling, now under new ownership. It’s another new era for this particular sports property.

There have been many eras.

There was one original “Slam” if you will, the Players’ Championship, first known as the Seagram’s V.O. Cup in the early 1990s.

Then it became known as the “Tour Championship” and was considered the jewel in the crown of the World Curling Tour—the loose network of independent cashspiels we’ve enjoyed forever. Sportsnet had the broadcast rights from 1999 through 2006 (remember the broadcast team of Rob Faulds, Ed Lukowich and Marilyn Bodogh?) whereupon CBC took over.

I was the first “curling guy” hired in 2001 by original Slam founders IMG Canada. Another player-turned-worker, Chad McMullan, was brought into the fold from the Winnipeg-based World Curling Tour.

My job was to consult and liaise with the athletes about IMG and the new GSOC series vision.

That vision soon included a need for competitor “exclusivity” (a better word than “boycott”) but we all know how that ended up, don’t we? 

Thanks to a couple of folks with unfortunate hair-triggers it all exploded into public warfare—with The B Word used nonstop—and the men’s curling scene was a smoking ruin for a few years.

I was also the guy who walked into Keith Pelley’s Rogers Media (Sportsnet) office some 11 years later and pitched him on buying the Slam series before it fell apart. We went to work, the sale eventually took place, and Sportsnet now owned their own sports property.

We also made a deal with four provinces—B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario—for Sportsnet to broadcast their women’s and men’s championships for a number of years. That was the first time the term “Curling Day In Canada” was unofficially used.

Now, a new outfit called The Curling Group has acquired the Slam series, with Sportsnet staying on as exclusive broadcast partner.

Nic Sulsky is the TCG figurehead. After founding the gaming disruptor Monkey Knife Fighting, Sulsky joined PointsBet, who became a major sponsor of Curling Canada though the two-year-old PointsBet Invitational. 

Sulsky has left PointsBet for The Curling Group, which also features Mike Cotton, formerly of Gamelancer Media Corp. and Rumble Gaming.

The TCG advisory board boasts more than Jennifer Jones and John Morris. 

Ex-Morris teammate Ben Hebert is there, as well as Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg. Italian men’s coach Ryan Fry is involved, as is his wife Jessica Szabo; the pair also head Gravity Management, which represents Team Hasselborg and Team Rachel Homan among others.

The United States is also represented, by ex-NFL quarterback Mark Bulger and All-Pro defensive lineman Jared Allen.

Bulger owns Tee Line Nashville, a sports bar boasting three sheets of curling ice, four bowling lanes and an extensive dining menu. That’s what attracted the attention of Sulsky, who was soon put in touch with Allen.

I find Bulger and Allen impressive. The NFL-guys-do-curling thing caused quite a media ruckus in 2018, and two of their mates did drop back, but Bulger and Allen continue. It’s now been six years and Allen continues to put in the work on the ice—and now, it seems, off the ice as well.

Allen says the group was discussing potential curling ventures when the opportunity to purchase the Slam series came into focus.

“It’s been a fun process,” said Allen. “It was kind of a no-brainer for the group—can this really happen? This is the Grand Slam of Curling!

“Curling is one of those fun sports where you know when lightning is going to strike,” Allen continued. “We know coming into the Winter Olympics it’s gonna happen, a huge bump, globally. So how do you keep that interest?

“That’s where (our group) is very player-centric, you want to highlight the men and women of curling. You want to make these events about more than the couple of thousand fans throughout the week coming through, really make it about a fan experience.”

Allen appreciates his fellow Group members, particularly those that have competed at the highest levels.

“You hear the ideas of where curling has been stagnant for many years, and where we can elevate it and not lose the foundation of what curling is.

“I don’t think we give enough exposure to the younger generation. Here is the States, Shuster dominates. If you’re going to put anyone’s face on a cereal box, (Korey) Dropkin is a young, handsome kid, right? So are we getting the right faces, telling the right stories?”

Allen points out Shuster’s own tale leading in to his 2018 Olympic triumph. “He was dropped by the national program, had to fight his way back. These are the great stories.”

“We’re seeing a massive push toward female sports,” Allen said. “Curling is one of those sports where the female athletes are just as impressive as male athletes. Other than sweeping, you’re on an equal playing field.”

Speaking of America…?

“That is absolutely at the forefront,” Allen declared. “A piece that I’m playing (is) to bring that stateside engagement to the sport. There has to be a Slam in the United States.

“(We should) try to get to those major secondary markets, or the major markets of curling. Where you have ease of transportation, a fan base, and you can really have the resources to make the experience worthwhile.”

In recent years Allen has been competing with 2010 Olympian Jason Smith, representing Nashville. Is Allen still planning to compete … or will he now be a suit and tie guy?

“Me and Jason (Smith) are still going strong,” Allen said. “Unfortunately we got our butts kicked at (2024) nationals.

We had a solid year, too. I did not to see that happening at nationals, I was a little baffled by it. We’ll go back and regroup.”

Nic Sulsky recently told CBC “(The Curling Group) plans are big, we are going to blow up the roaring game all around the world.”

Allen pointed out next year’s Slam schedule is mostly set—with one location still to be announced—and suggested any major changes to the series will come over time.

“We don’t want to change anything fundamentally with the Slams,” he said. “We see the potential they have, we see the events, we see the engagement.”

This sport has seen many organizations—and personalities—come and go.

“Wild” Bill Hunter’s cashspiels in the 1990s were spectacular, but the ill-fated “Curling International” franchise league was not.

The World Open, aka the infamous “Rudyspiel” was a disaster.

Rockstar Curling was to be a 1999 reality TV show aired on NBC, but it never even got off the ground.

In 2018, a Chinese group funded World Curling to run a new series, the Curling World Cup. By 2019 the Chinese hadn’t paid up—whoops—and World Curling cancelled the series, taking a bath in the process.

Recently, we’ve heard about The Players’ Tour and a related players’ association. The former has hosted one successful event, in Dundas, Ont. The alleged creation of the players’ association, however, had other curling media falling over themselves to provide initial coverage—but the project has proven to be a nothingburger.

There’s no reason to think The Curling Group isn’t in for the long haul. Sulsky made a positive impact in just two years as a curling sponsor, his partners are diverse, and his advisory group is strong.

Allen echoes the positives.

“The biggest thing that I would want people to know about is Nic’s passion for the sport,” Allen said. 

“It’s really contagious, it’s very authentic and it drives us.”