The hottest ticket in St. Albert will get you the best seat in the house at the World Financial Group Continental Cup of Curling.
“We are close to 75 per cent sold out. Basically it’s about 20,000 seats total for the 11 draws and we’re closing in on 15,000 tickets sold,” said Mike Howes, the committee chair for next week’s international spectacle at Servus Credit Union Place. “Would I love to see it sold out already and have a waiting list? Absolutely, but I’m not disappointed at all that about 75 per cent of the tickets are gone.”
The majority of tickets have been gobbled up by Edmonton and area curling enthusiasts, as well as fans in the prairie provinces, Ontario and the United States.
“I’m absolutely delighted, both as a director of this event and as the chamber chair, that basically 70 per cent of the postal codes are not St. Albert of the tickets we sold to date,” Howes said. “We want to showcase St. Albert and make sure a lot of people get to see the city and want to visit. With 70 per cent of the people coming from outside of St. Albert, it’s been very successful from that standpoint.”
Ticket packages include the $275 full event passes with guaranteed seating, $165 ‘half cup’ mini packs for the Saturday and Sunday draws, $69 single day passes for Thursday and Friday and single draw seats — $30 for Thursday and Friday and $35 for Saturday and Sunday.
Tickets can also be purchased online at www.seasonofchampions.ca, or by calling Ticketmaster at 780-451-8000.
To meet the demand for single draw tickets, the Ticketmaster box office will open Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. on the main floor of Servus Place in the police station room, which will also double as the event’s kiosk.
“There are great tickets available,” Howes said. “You gotta be there.”
Every same-day pass to the event includes complimentary admission to Keith’s Patch. Curling’s legendary party place is open daily at Troy Murray Arena, starting Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., with the exception of the last day, Sunday, when it will close at 8:30 p.m. The line-up of bands includes The Classics (Wednesday), Hey Romeo (Thursday), Karac Hendriks and The Chevelles (Friday) and Tera Lee and Souled Out (Saturday). For show times, visit www.atthepatch.ca.
Various giveaways, contests and games, including the Cool Curling Shuffleboard playoff with cash prizes awarded, are also part of the fun at Keith’s Patch.
Meanwhile, work started Friday to transform Performance Arena into a three-sheet curling venue.
“There is definitely not a bad seat in the house. There is no blocked view or partial view,” Howes said. “On the players’ side and the penalty box side they are going to take that six or eight foot glass out and put in two feet of glass so it’s just a railing. People that are sitting there will be pleasantly surprised.”
Several luxury box seats at ice level have also been sold at $1,800 apiece for the four-day competition. They seat four and come complete with bar stools, mini fridge, table, bar service, merchandise bucks, drink tickets, pins and souvenirs. As of Thursday only a couple were left. For more details, call event manager Trina Joly at 780-460-2255 or [email protected]
At this stage of the game the seventh annual Continental Cup is on track to become the best of the bunch.
“We’re in real good shape and we credit the Canadian Curling Association and the template they provide for us,” Howes said. “I’m kind of sad to see it finishing actually. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s certainly a lot more work than I anticipated at the beginning but if they asked me again tomorrow, I would do it in a heartbeat.”
Approximately 350 volunteers have banded together to make sure everything goes according to plan.
“The volunteer rally we had on [Dec.] 14th was kind of like calling everybody together and these are the times to finalize all your plans and there was no surprises at all,” Howes said. “We’ve got 12 to 14 people on a waiting list as volunteers if anybody backs out.”
TSN will broadcast live every minute of the Continental Cup as part of the Canadian Curling Association’s Season of Champions.
“We want to showcase to TSN how sold out we are,” Howes said.
The best curlers in the world will be in St. Albert and many of them competed at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. In total there are 12 rinks — six representing Team World and six representing Team North America, with three men’s and three women’s rinks per side. Curlers test their skills in team games, mixed doubles, singles and skins matches. Points are awarded for wins or ties. The first side to reach 201 points wins. The series is tied at three wins apiece.
For draw times, visit www.curling.ca/championships/continentalcup/
There was no Continental Cup last season because of the 2009 Roar of the Rings Olympic trials. The six previous events were staged in Canada, including the last one in Camrose in 2008.
HOG LINES: Wednesday’s opening ceremonies start at 8:30 p.m. at Performance and it’s free to the public. Keith Patch’s will also open its doors at 9 p.m. for general admission. All 12 rinks are expected to be in attendance.
The budget for the Continental Cup is roughly $1 million. Thirty local sponsors are also on board.
The Continental Cup will kick off the start of the City of St. Albert’s 150th birthday celebrations, almost to the day it was founded, on Jan. 14, 1861.
