Record seat sales for Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event in North Bay

Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling has set a new record for seat sales leading up to its North Bay event.  

“We have sold over 33,000 seats, breaking the old record for attendance by 10,000. We think we will hit 40,000 seats by the time we’re done,” said Rick Miller chair of facilities.

“The Grand Slam of Curling is the world curling tour. These are events that teams from all over the world are in.”

The event runs from October 22-27 at North Bay’s Memorial Gardens.

North Bay built a reputation for excellence when it hosted the World Women’s Curling Championship last year, setting a record for the highest attendance at any World Women’s Curling Championship held in Canada.

Next week curlers from around the world will be in North Bay competing.  

“This is the best field ever in a curling event and that draws a lot of people. We think we did a great job at the World’s and people had a good time, so they want to come back. We get an awful lot of ticket sales from people in Ottawa, Toronto, Sudbury, and Timmins, because North Bay is easy to get to.”  

The top 15 men's and women’s teams in the world will be in the city.

They include teams from Switzerland, Sweden, Scotland, Japan, the United States and of course Canada.

“John Shuster Olympic gold medalist from the United States will be here on the men’s side. Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg who was the Olympic gold medalist will be here. Jennifer Jones who won the World’s here will be at the event, and Rachel Homan and her rink out of Ottawa. They are the number one ranked team in the world,” said Miller.

“In the men’s you have Niklas Edin from Sweden, Kevin Koe from Alberta, and Brendan Bottcher from Alberta. They are the top three in the world. But all these teams are all so good and all so equal that anyone of them could win. It is the best of the best in the world who are coming here. At every draw, there are matchups that are as good as any matchup as you will ever see.”  

The opening ceremony gets underway at 7 p.m. right before the first draw Tuesday night.

“The opening ceremony will be very, very short. There’s not flag bearers every time teams come out because they’re not here representing their country, they’re here representing themselves and their sponsors as professional athletes,” explained Miller.

Tickets can be purchased online or in-person at the North Bay Battalion box office on the second floor of the arena up until the day of the event.

During the event tickets will be available at the front box office.  

“For any of the draws, people can just do walk up at the box office, the same as they do for a hockey game. We expect in the evening draws, especially towards the end of the week we’re going to be sold out, and we hope we’re going to be sold out for the playoffs.”

There will be a social component for ticket holders.

“Pinty’s which is the main sponsor will have a pub right on the ice at the one end of the arena and there are people right at ice level viewing. And there will be live entertainment at the Granite Club on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. To get in at the Granite Club you need you have had a ticket for the event that day because our space is limited at the lounge at the Granite Club.”   

As with the World Women’s competition, there will be an economic benefit for the city.

“When we studied the World’s, the direct economic spinoff of that was about $7 million. We are probably going to be at about 3 or 4 million for this,” said Miller.

Full games will be aired live.

“Rogers is bringing in a crew of 75 people. We have cameras on every ice. The broadcast will look very similar to what we had for the World’s,” said Miller.  

“Rogers will cover 11 of the games. They start all the primetime ones Thursday night and go through to the finals. They’re airing right across their full network.” 

Sunday’s finals get underway at noon with the women’s final followed by the men’s final at 4:30.