A star-studded cast of curlers have been confirmed for the 2011 World Financial Group Continental Cup.
And starting 10 a.m. Friday, tickets go on sale for the biggest curling spectacle to rock St. Albert.
"We're going to sell you the whole seat but you're only going to need the edge," said Mike Howes, the host committee chair, during Tuesday's press conference at Servus Credit Union Place.
Full event passes with guaranteed seating are priced at $275 (including service charge and GST). Tickets can be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at 780-451-8000 or online at seasonofchampions.ca.
"Get your tickets because you gotta be there," Howes said.
The biggest names in the curling world will be on display at the seventh annual Continental Cup, Jan. 13 to 16 at the 2,000 seat Performance Arena.
"Fans are going to see exceptional curling. They're going to see different, exciting formats. They're also going to see the best curlers having a great time," said Marc Kennedy, St. Albert's Olympic gold medallist on the Kevin Martin rink and the poster boy for the Ryder Cup of curling.
"The fun part is, when you've got one team on the ice you've got all the other players on the bench supporting them. Guys are cheering and screaming. You're going to see a lot more excitement than you would at a regular curling event. The players really get into it. It's a lot of fun for the fans, too, so they should buy their tickets and come check it out."
The four-day event will bring together 12 of the best rinks in the world, with six representing Team World and six representing Team North America. Each team is made up of three men's rinks and three women's rinks.
"It only takes about 10 minutes and you really feel Canadian and North American and you want to beat those guys from the rest of the world so there is huge, huge patriotism involved," said Kennedy, who experienced the thrill of competition at the 2008 Continental Cup in Camrose, won by Team World 208-192.
"In Camrose it was held in a little bigger arena than this one and it was almost full. I expect the seats here will be packed. It will be a good ticket to get."
Curlers will test their skills in team games, mixed doubles, singles, mixed skins and regular skins games as Performance Arena will be transformed into a three-sheet curling venue. Points are awarded for wins or ties. The first side to reach 201 points wins. The series is tied at three wins apiece.
"This will truly be like game seven in St. Albert," Howes said.
Top-notch rinks
Carrying the Team North America banner will be four teams from Canada, skipped by Martin (2008 world champion and Brier winner in 2008 and 2009 with John Morris at third, Kennedy at second and Ben Hebert at lead), Kevin Koe (last year's Brier and world champion who curls with St. Albert resident Blake MacDonald and St. Albert men's club champion Jamie King as the spare), Calgary's Cheryl Bernard (2010 Olympic silver medalist) and Winnipeg's Jennifer Jones (four-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts winner and 2008 world champion).
Also participating are current U.S. champions Pete Fenson (2006 Olympic bronze medallist from Bemidji, Minn.) and Erika Brown (lives in Oakville, Ont., but is formerly from Madison, Wis.).
"We battle against these guys all year long so it's important to us and a lot of fun too to have the chance to kind of bond with them a little more and have that kind of camaraderie like a Ryder Cup style and to play with them in a format where we're not worried about points [on the World Curling Tour] or getting to the Olympics," said Kennedy, a three-time Brier first team all-star.
Team World is led by rinks skipped by Scotland's David Murdoch (two-time world champion will be in charge of an international team, a Continental Cup first, with two Swiss and a German in the line-up), Norway's Thomas Ulsrud (lost the Olympic gold medal final to Martin), Sweden's Niklas Edin (fourth-place at the 2010 Olympics), China's Bingyu Wang (2010 Olympic bronze medallist and 2009 world champion), Germany's Andrea Schopp (2010 world champion) and Switzerland's Mirjam Ott (fourth-place at 2010 Olympics).
The main attraction, however, will be the Martin foursome, with Kennedy headlining the show.
"St. Albert has been so supportive of my career and to get a chance to kind of be the face of a big event for the city means everything to me. I just saw a whole bunch of volunteers here today that I grew up curling against and they're excited to have the event here and I will do anything I can do to help the event be a success," said the Paul Kane High School alumnus who threw his very first rock at the St. Albert Curling Club. "To see them support a big event like the Continental Cup is going to be a lot of fun."
Kennedy, 28, is still basking in the limelight of winning Olympic gold in Canada.
"When people recognize you or see the medal they get so excited and that brings back all those emotions and feelings they had in February. I'm not sure if that will ever go away, to be honest," said the southpaw shooter who quarterbacked the St. Albert Storm to the 1997 Football Alberta tier I provincial final in his Grade 11 season. "It's still hard to fathom what we did as a rink. It's a real difficult thing to put into words. It has been since day one. It's just a once in a lifetime experience and to win it was just the icing on the cake. We're just so fortunate to have that experience and so lucky to be a part of it. For it to work out the way it did, we'll never take that for granted. It's still a very, very special thing."
HOG LINES: Howes said the budget for the Continental Cup is roughly $1 million. Thirty local sponsors are on board for the event.
It will also signal the start of the City of St. Albert's 150th birthday celebrations, almost to the day it was founded, on Jan. 14, 1861.
TSN will provide live coverage of every second of the Continental Cup as part of the Canadian Curling Association's Season of Champions.
There was no Continental Cup last season because of the 2009 Roar of the Rings Olympic trials. The six previous instalments were staged in Canada.
More than 310 volunteers have been processed, but a few more are needed to help out with security. To sign up, contact security chair Dave Langevin at 780-951-1220 or [email protected].
For more information on the Continental Cup, contact event manager Trina Joly at 780-460-2255 or [email protected].
Additional assistance is available at the St. Albert Curling Club at 780-459-7007.
The event website is www.curling.ca/championships/continentalcup/
