1999 Brier
SLAM! Sports
SLAM! Curling
1999 BRIER
ON THE ROCKS
INTERACTIVE
ALSO ON SLAM!
For love, not money
Souvenir, concession and parking stands are going full tilt and sponsorship money is all but dripping off the Skyreach boards.
And the stars of the show? The men at the centre of this nationally treasured cash cow?
They're losing money. It's costing some of them more to compete at the Brier than it would to stay home and work.
"Right now the sport is at a point where you have to make that sacrifice,'' said Manitoba skip Jeff Stoughton. "But if you talk to 3,000 other curlers in every province they would all love to be here. It's a once in a lifetime thing. You never know when you're going to be back.
"So taking a week off work without pay, or a week's vacation, isn't too bad considering the prize at the end.''
The prize at the end, for a select few, is the prestige of being a Brier champ. For a curler, there can be no greater thrill, no greater honor.
But of the millions of dollars being generated this week, the players don't get a sniff.
The host committee and the Canadian Curling Association split almost all of the profits while the teams are guaranteed about $6,000 each to divide among their five-man rinks.
"It's to provide some assistance to help with the expense of coming here, like babysitters, travel for wives and so on,'' said Warren Hansen, director of event management at the Brier. "Once they're on site we pretty much take care of them. Each player gets his own hotel room, they get a $50 per diem, tickets, access to the players lounge...''
For most, that's more than enough.
"Nobody's going to get rich off the Brier, other than the people who are putting it together,'' said Newfoundland skip Glenn Goss, who doesn't mind taking the time off work to come here and play for peanuts.
"From my perspective, I didn't come here to get rich. It's an amateur sport, playing for your province and if you get lucky enough, playing for your country. And if that's not good enough incentive you shouldn't be here in the first place.''
The players haven't made much of a stand on the issue because it's a new field every year and most of them are wide-eyed first-timers just glad to be here. Think Ken Hunka is going to raise a stink about his share of the Brier pie?
"It's better than it used to be a couple of years ago,'' said Quebec's Guy Hemmings. "It would be good to have more money. Some guys are working on it, but this is probably the one event where we don't care about money. We play all year long for big cashspiels. That's when we care about money. Here we wear our province's colors, that's enough.
"Don't get me wrong, if somebody said, 'Here's $50,000 to play at the Brier,' I'd take it. We get a small per diem and we're all happy about it. We're all going to spend it at the Brier Patch. It's a wise investment.''
That's the whole Brier shtick. Have a few beers. A few laughs. A bunch of good, Canadian boys chucking rocks. What could be more pure?
But behind the scenes there is some very serious money being thrown around and people aren't paying it to watch the CCA shuffle papers.
What's wrong with $150,000 for first place and $100,000 for second? It's not like the money isn't there and it's not like the players don't deserve it.
"I don't know if it'll ever happen in the short term but I don't think it would hurt this event if you did put prize money on it,'' said Stoughton, adding it didn't hurt The Masters tradition any when Augusta National was finally forced to open its purse strings.
"This could be looked at the same way, and why not? It's more incentive for everyone. You could have the prize money broken down from first to 12th, so even if you're out of it by Tuesday you know that you're still playing for something in your last game.''
Hansen says we shouldn't hold our breath.
"There isn't anybody in the world who's receiving money from something who doesn't want more. That's the way society works. We are looking at other ways and means of being able to fund the AAF. We hope to develop a number of items to fund the AAF substantially.
"But (big cash prizes at the Brier) certainly isn't in the foreseeable future because this is an amateur event, they're playing for titles. I don't think that's what we want to get involved with here.''
Not until they have to, anyway. Hansen says if money spiels and the World Curling Tour get too huge, then the CCA might consider creating a high-stakes event of its own in addition to the Brier.
But the Brier will not become the country's largest cashspiel.
"I think the Brier will stay the way it is,'' said Hansen. "It's an activity, a happening. These aren't the 12 best rinks in Canada, but the Brier is a touch of Canadiana that makes it unique. A lot of what we're selling here is the sizzle, everything that goes along with this thing and makes it such a fever.''
The Grey Cup is marketed the exact same way --Canadiana, good times, beer, parties -- but nobody plays that game for free.
Who knows when the curlers will get wise, but the numbers can't be ignored forever.
"If the Brier keeps getting bigger there will eventually be more money for the players,'' said Hemmings.
"Hopefully we won't become fat cats like the hockey or baseball players.''