With the Pan Continental Curling Championships kicking off this weekend at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex, the Lacombe & District Chamber of Commerce is anticipating a big boon to the local economy.
"It's going to have a huge effect on the community of Lacombe and its surrounding areas," said executive director Wendy Buyar. "Not just for during the event but for time afterwards as well. People are going to be coming to stay in Lacombe, they'll be eating in Lacombe, they'll be shopping in Lacombe. That's going to have some real effects on the businesses in Lacombe."
Buyar expects the event to bring a minimum of 400 people from around the world into the community next week. She anticipates that all of the local hotels will be full or nearly booked solid.
Related stories:
- What you need to know about the Pan Continental Curling Championships
- Final preparations for the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships underway
"You have teams coming from all over the world. There's going to be fans coming from everywhere to see these teams playing," remarked Buyar. "I think the businesses are going to be prepared for visitors from all over the world. They anticipate people coming to visit them and they're excited about it."
The third annual Pan Continental Curling Championships will feature 36 teams from across the globe including teams from Canada skipped by Brad Gushue and Rachel Homan.
"I don't know that we've actually had an event like this in Lacombe that would have had this kind of impact that this event is going to have on our community and the surrounding areas," said Buyar.
The event kicks off Saturday at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex with play in the men's B-Division round-robin.
Sign up to get the latest local news headlines delivered directly to your inbox every afternoon.
Send your news tips, story ideas, pictures, and videos to news@centralalbertaonline.com.
CentralAlbertaOnline encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the CentralAlbertaOnline app.