1999 Brier
SLAM! Sports
SLAM! Curling
1999 BRIER
ON THE ROCKS
INTERACTIVE
ALSO ON SLAM!
This Brier field is wide open!
Guy Hemmings of Quebec looks up at the empty seats, trying to imagine what it's going to be like with what may be as many as a quarter of a million fans sitting in them over the course of the next nine days.
"I can't comprehend,'' said the cult hero from last year's Brier in Winnipeg.
"I just can't imagine all those people paying all that money to watch curling. They must like curling more than I do.''
Well, there is that.
But, that aside ...
If there ever was a Brier which looked like it would be worthy of such mind-boggling attendance numbers despite the fact that it is, uh, curling, '`The Last Shootout'' is it.
LATEST NUMBERS
As Hemmings took his practice shots, the Edmonton Brier committee calculated their latest pre-sale numbers.
Barring a last-minute surge and a huge walk-up for the opening ceremonies and first draw today, they are going to fall slightly short of their unstated goal of setting a Brier attendance record before the first rock was thrown.
As of Friday morning, they'd sold 217,700. The record, from Calgary two years ago, was 223,322.
"Maybe they should just alternate this between Calgary and Edmonton,'' says Gerald Shymko of Saskatchewan.
"Who knows where the attendance record would end up?''
Even the wouldn't-go-across-the-road-to-watch-himself-curl Hemmings agrees that if you were ever to pay to watch these butchers, bakers and candlestick makers, this would probably be the time and place.
The '`Last Shootout Of The Century'' looks to be very well named.
It's gonna be a shootout.
"In this field, if you hang in there at 6-5 you might make it into a tiebreaker,'' says Hemmings.
"Seven-and-four should get you in there clean,'' he says of the four-rink Page playoff system.
"Even if you lose a couple early, I wouldn't be discouraged. It's going to be a long week. You aren't going to win this one on the first weekend.
"And the ice . ... it's really, really fast. There's lots of movement. It's really, really swingy. I mean the rocks are moving four and four and a half feet. You're going to see more spectacular shots ...'
Rich Moffat of Ontario is in his first Brier but says he isn't going to be intimidated by the number of fans watching during the week.
"We have never played in front of that size of crowd. But, hey, how many teams have?''
Russ Howard has curled in front of a few folks before. But the relocated legend who is here trying to win New Brunswick's first-ever Brier, has a rink which hasn't.
"I think we had 60 people at our provincials,'' he laughed.
"And it was standing room only.''
Ken Hunka doesn't have a clue.
"I don't know. Don't ask me. I've never been here before. Neither have a few other people. The only thing I can tell you right now is that there are a pile of good teams here, it looks like a really even field and there are going to be a lot of good games out there. There's a tonne of movement on this ice. There are going to be some amazing games.''
Has there ever been a Labatt Brier in which so many teams thought they had a chance - a very real chance - to be there at the end?
"The way these rinks match-up, there could be a six-way tie,'' says Shymko.
"All the rinks are talking about it. There could be a lot of rinks at 7-4.
"This ice is just fantastic,'' he raves.
Howard will be playing in his ninth Brier. When he wins his first game he will be the first skip ever to win 100.
And he says he's never seen a field quite like this one. There have been ones with more previous winners and more recognizable names to the general public, he says, but not this many good, solid rinks whether they are names or not or have been here before or not.
PHENOMENAL!
"Just about anybody could win in this field,'' says Howard. "I think it's a phenomenal field. There are seven or eight teams that could be right there. I think we're an underdog.''
Most so-called experts are picking Manitoba's Jeff Stoughton, ignoring the fact that Manitoba has crapped out at all three previous Edmonton Briers (Jimmy Welsh 4-6 in '54, Danny Fink 4-6 in '73 and Brian Fowler 6-5 in '89).
"Stoughton and Hemmings should be near the top. We're back in that next pack of eight.''
And so it goes.
My guess, and it IS a guess, is Shymko. Decent odds in the media parimutual.
And put me down for 166,666 in the attendance pool.