1999 Brier
SLAM! Sports
SLAM! Curling
1999 BRIER
ON THE ROCKS
INTERACTIVE
ALSO ON SLAM!
Records scratched as The Last Shootout of the Century draws to a close
The final numbers of The Last Shootout of the Century are the numbers future Briers will have to shoot at.
Never, in its 70 years of history, have so many people paid to watch the Canadian curling championship. And never have they bought so many drink tokens at a Brier Patch between and after draws.
Both numbers are mind-numbing.
With a crowd of 13,709 for the final, the 1999 Edmonton Brier drew a total of 242,887, breaking Calgary's 1997 record by 19,565. The total was 91,349 more than the third largest Brier crowd of all time in Saskatoon in 1989 and 176,094 more than filled the Agricom for the last Brier held here back in 1987.
And at the Brier Patch, Edmonton sold 190,000 Hec Gervais drink tokens to beat Calgary's record of 160,000.
The only surviving record for the Stampede City's Brier was the final crowd. Calgary put 17,000 in the Saddledome for the Kevin Martin vs. Vic Peters Alberta-Manitoba final.
Edmonton '99 chairman Terry Morris said he was only a "wee bit disappointed'' his Brier didn't hit the quarter million mark in attendance or fill Skyreach Centre for the final game.
"I think if Kenny Hunka had made it to the final, we would have. Maybe if Saskatchewan had made it, a couple thousand more would have come from around the province.
"But how can we complain. It was a fantastic Brier and nobody has ever had numbers which could come close.''
Brier boss Warren Hansen said there's an asterisk beside Calgary's 17,000 record attendance for the final, whereas Edmonton's numbers were real.
Labatt "bought'' about 4,000 tickets to fill the building at next to no cost.
"I would think this is the largest paid, full paid, crowd of all time,'' said Hansen.
"This Brier met or exceeded our expectations in all departments. It was outstanding. The best!''
At the Brier Patch the final dollar numbers, give or take a $1.98 should end up at about $680,000 when the final tokens from last night's sales are added up according to Brier Patch boss Ken McRae.
"It's certainly blown all our minds, just blown us away,'' said McRae.
"We'll end up well over $100,000 above Calgary,'' he said of the previous record.
Obviously Edmonton did it right. But McRae met with the Saskatoon people and made one strong recommendation. Ditch the big name bands.
"The people in the Patch don't care about the high priced name bands. They want the bar bands,'' he said.
Danny Hooper. The Nomads. The Kit Kat Klub. They could have rotated them throughout the week and everybody would have been happy.
"Still,'' said McRae, "we had a lot of people tell us this was the best Patch ever.
"The bar has been raised.''