The world of Curling will assemble again in early October for a major curling event at North Bay Memorial Gardens.
Organizers of the event slated for Oct. 4 to 9 held a media conference to outline the Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling event which is already off to a flying start.
"This is the third of a series of major curling events held here in North Bay so we are looking forward to hopefully another successful event," said Mark Brown, co-chair of the local event.
"The last two were amazing and there is no reason why this one should be any different."
Those two events were the Women's World Curling Championships in the spring of 2018 followed by a Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling event in the fall of 2019.
See related: Grand Slam of Curling event a sweeping success
Mark Brown, chair of the organizing committee for the high-profile curling event, said at the time, the Grand Slam of Curling 2019 event broke attendance records by more than 12,000.
Brown says the event sold more than 37,000 seats which eclipsed the previous Grand Slam of Curling event mark of 24,000.
Brown says corporate sponsors are all in place and ticket sales are well on their way again.
"Ticket sales are amazing as always," said Brown.
"North Bay has always supported our events very strongly so we are encouraging people to come out to the Battalion office. pick up their tickets or order them online."
The two finalists from the memorable World Women's Curling Championships from 2018 will be there in the team's of Jennifer Jones and Anna Hasselborg.
"You will have Brad Gushue who is probably the best male curler in Canada right now, probably the world, Kevin Koe, and Mike McEwan," said Brown about the big names.
"It is all the names that you see on TV when you watch curling. They are all going to be here."
Al McDonald, North Bay's Mayor, is glad to see curling return to the gardens.
"Huge national exposure here, along with some of the best curlers in the world, a fun event and something as I mentioned, we are known as Hockeyville but we are also known as Curling World because we are attracting incredible curling events to our community," said McDonald.
A total of 16 men's and 16 women's teams will compete at the North Bay event with the finals taking place on October 9.
Brown cannot pinpoint one thing that makes events like this hum in North Bay but he says there are so many components that make them successful.
"It starts with the volunteers that come out and give us their time, it goes to the staffing at the Gardens and how well they work with us. It goes to the organizing committee from Grand Slam Curling. and of course the support of the sponsors is just amazing this year. It has always been good but we actually sold out of sponsorships this year," he said.
