The Brier has been played in 31 cities across Canada, but not yet in Prince George.
Kingston, Ontario drew to the button, leaving the City of Prince George (St. Catherines, Ontario & Moncton, New Brunswick) on the outside looking in as the host venue for the 2020 Canadian men’s curling championship, which runs February 29th to March 8th.
One can only speculate what separated the Kingston bid from the one that Prince George put forward.
Was it the East’s turn?
Regina had it this year and Brandon has it next year (March 2nd to 10th).
From 2012 to 2019, the Tim Horton’s Brier will be in the West six years out of eight (Saskatoon 2012, Edmonton 2013, Kamloops 2014, Calgary 2015, Ottawa 2016, and St. John’s 2017).
Prince George Bid Chair Glen Mikkelsen also has some other theories for the decision.
“The ticket deposits that Kingston, and that Moncton had as well, were $50 each,” Mikkelsen told.
“We had $20.20 to try and help build the brand and the awareness for it. They also reached out to local businesses and had them make some commitments in advance. Those are just a few things we noticed when we did research on the other bid committees,” said Mikkelsen.
We’re at an announcement confirming that our bid to host the 2020 Tim Hortons Brier was unsuccessful. Congratulations to @VisitKingston1 on the successful bid, we’re sure you will rock the house in 2020!#takeonpg #cityofpg pic.twitter.com/9LXvZmVffm
— Tourism PG (@tourismpg) November 1, 2018
Kingston, which last hosted the Brier in 1957, also has a slightly bigger building than the CN Centre.
The 6,700-seat Leon’s Centre, located at 1 Tragically Hip Way, opened in February 2008.
The venue served as host of the 2013 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
It is almost hard to believe that it has been 18 years (2000) since Prince George last hosted the Scotties otherwise known as the Canadian women’s curling championship.
Going forward, P.G. should learn from the experience and the 10-grand it cost to put the bid together.
While disappointed today, the City of Prince George should get right back up on its feet and make the next presentation bigger and better, to try to land this prestigious curling event in 2021 or 2022.
“The first step will be to see if Prince George City Council wants to support it to the same level or even more of a financial support that they were committing to. That’s certainly the key component that will help us start the ball rolling again to go for 2021,” stated Mikkelsen.
By the way, Curling Canada and the winning city need to do a better job of keeping the announcement secret.
A story published this week in the Kingston Whig-Standard suggested the winning bid committee had reportedly known for a month that they would host the 2020 Tim Horton’s Brier.
There was no need for cities like Prince George to have been left hanging for that amount of time.
ICYMI: It’s official – Kingston, Ontario will host the 2020 @TimHortons Brier! The excitement in Kingston is contagious with a standing ovation for the official announcement today at the Leon’s Centre.
For all the details, check out our story: https://t.co/Hy7LPHpseE pic.twitter.com/y1owxAmBPq
— Curling Canada (@CurlingCanada) November 1, 2018
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The Canadian teams are off to a superb start one month into the NHL regular season.
Ottawa is the only one of seven not above .500, yet even the Senators have 12 points after 12 games (5-5-2).
Winnipeg (8-4-1), Calgary (8-5-1), Montreal (7-3-2), Toronto (8-5), Vancouver (8-6) and Edmonton (7-4-1) are all in the top 12 of the overall standings.
Keep in mind there is still a whopping 5/6 of the season to be played.
At Bo-dog, the Habs and Canucks have experienced meteoric rises on the oddsboard with Montreal (+10,000 prior to the season to +4,000) and Vancouver (+12,500 to +8,500).
Observez le Tricolore marquer deux buts plus rapidement qu’il nous en a fallu pour écrire ce tweet (et établir un record de la LNH, aussi).
Watch the Habs score two goals quicker than it took us to type this tweet (and set an NHL record, too). pic.twitter.com/ACV8xpUHsV
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) November 2, 2018
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This is Week Six of ‘Hartley’s Cat Scan.
The podcast, introduced in September, predominately features the Prince George Cougars.
My guest this week is Cougars Director of Scouting Bob Simmonds.
His background not only includes hockey.
Bob spent over 30 years with the RCMP and is a former body guard for Bill Clinton and a limo driver for Queen Elizabeth.
FROM THE QUOTE RACK:
Harley-Davidson has recalled 238,000 motorcycles because they have a clutch problem. The NFL, not to be outdone, immediately recalled the New York Giants.
*Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times http://www.seattletimes.com/author/dwight-perry/
Thursday’s NFL match-up between the 1-7 Oakland Raiders and the 2-7 San Francisco 49ers was decided by which team wanted it less.
*Contributor Bill Littlejohn of South Lake Tahoe, California
Coach Jon Gruden says he gets a lot of phone calls from players who say they are “dying to play for the Raiders.” Is he sure they didn’t mean “we’d rather be dead than play for the Raiders?”
*Comedy writer Janice Hough of Palo Alto, California www.leftcoastsportsbabe.com
After a ten year absence, Chris Webber is returning to Michigan. Or as the school calls his being away from the campus,“another unnecessary timeout.”
*American comedy writer Jim Barach http://jokesbyjim.blogspot.ca/
Retired gymnast Mary Lou Retton is divorcing her husband of 27 years. I guess she is no longer head over heels over him.
*Contributor Marc Ragovin of New York
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
World’s strongest man, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, the 6’9” Game Of Thrones star, wed 5’2″ Canadian bodybuilder Kelsey Morgan. Is that mating a Mountain to a molehill?
*Canadian comedy writer RJ Currie www.Sportsdeke.com
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Hartley Miller is the sports director and morning news anchor for 94.3 the GOAT.
He also is the 94.3 radio colour commentator for P.G. Cougars home games.
His column appears Fridays on myprincegeorgenow.com.
Send along a quote, note, or anecdote to [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @Hartley_Miller
Listen to him on his weekly podcast: Hartley’s Cat Scan.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
