We are around the midpoint of the BKT World Men’s Curling Championship, and the Temple Gardens Centre has risen to the challenge of hosting this world-class event.
From concessions to The Patch to the sold-out crowds, the staff and volunteers at the arena have been working non-stop to make it an enjoyable experience for both the curlers and the curling fans.
“Everybody seems to be enjoying themselves. The lines are moving pretty well at all the concessions, and everything is running smoothly. It’s a lot of work that went into putting everything together, but it’s come off pretty well,” said Temple Gardens Centre assistant general manager Corey Nyhagen.
Nyhagen said they are averaging over 2,200 fans per draw as of Tuesday morning.
Draws featuring Team Canada have been the busiest. As of Tuesday afternoon, Canada had played five games, and a couple of them had sell-out crowds.
“Our last two Team Canada draws were sold out, with physical tickets gone. Some people can’t make it to all the draws because we have a lot of full event packages,” Nyhagen said.
He added that staffing is always tricky, but they have been keeping up with the demand. However, it has really been the volunteers who have been the stars of the show.
Nyhagen said the volunteers have done a great job of filling in and keeping everything running smoothly with the staff.
“Hats off to the volunteers, because there’s no way we could do it all without them. They’ve really filled in a lot of gaps that would have been difficult to fill for an event of this size,” he said.
This isn’t the first time Moose Jaw has hosted an event of this calibre. The city hosted the Scotties Tournament of Hearts women’s national curling championship in 2015 and 2020.
Nyhagen said that the experience of hosting the Scotties has paid off.
“They’re live events, so there are always things that can come up. But over the years, we’ve figured out how we want the Patch set up properly so it works for everybody, what food and beverage offerings to provide, and what people want,” Nyhagen said.
For instance, he said that during Moose Jaw Warriors games, they had the Dog House, but it didn’t suit the curling crowd. So, they rebranded it as the Coffee House to serve coffee, loaves, and other goodies for the morning draws.
Nyhagen said there are still a few tickets available for the draws heading into the weekend, but they are going fast, and he expects Saturday and Sunday playoff games to be sold out.
“The weekend is going to be very busy. We’ve got both evening games and Friday night with Team Canada playing, and when we get into the championship games, it’s going to be a pretty full house here,” he said.
Tickets are available by visiting sasktix.ca or in person at the Temple Gardens Box Office.