curlerbroad
Super Rockchucker
Registered: Feb 2004
Location: Toronto
Posts: 2668 |
quote: Originally posted by fresca
Alan was just giving an opinion on the future and he isnt far wrong in my opinion.
Curlingzone is a great place to chat but the sport is boring to most young people - particularly so the month between the canada cup and the continental cup -- if you take away gerry, milo, and about 10 posters that try to generate a post so that there is something to read - there wouldnt be much here ... i try pretty hard to post regularly , it isnt easy .. about 50 of the regular posters from the last 5 years are gone .. some have mellowed like ml , and some obnoxious ones have disappeared fortunately.. trouble is they ticked off some really interesting ones that havent returned..
I started curling at 11 in the 50s .. for 20 years thru high school , university, 2 nite a week club curling , a few bonspeils and zones , and provincial playdowns 4x, - then i retired about age 30 - watched til i was 60 , peaking in 2010 at the Vancouver olympics - we spent about $10K on about 40 front row tickets and had the best week of our lives .. but the toll of the 5 minute commercials between ends has taken the fun out of it for me - i will buy the advertisers product if they are not t0o obnoxious ( Capital One) , - have bot $18 Tims, $16 Pintys , spent $200 on Rona the last olympics to show my appreciation
I dont know why im burned out - maybe just old - but i know im tired of watching the same teams for 20 years -- and i dont like them spatting and packing teams - ( that doesnt seem to work very well thank goodness) ( morris , koe , laing, etc - im not unhappy when they lose now) - all in this ridiculous quest for an olympic medal - and even one isnt enough it seems ..
I have said it before , this is a dying sport - killing itself with too much emphasis on the olympics and about 20 players in Canada and 5 players in about 7 other countries = 35 / total 50
Curling will likely outlast me - but it is not nearly the sport that it was -- the mca speil with 1280 teams in 1988 and the days of 8 teams qualifying for the provincial Consols from The Birks and Eatons event - are gone - the arena packed with 10,000 people
Happy New Year
Fresca, I can't agree more. I remember when bonspiels used to be full with a waiting list, now the day of the 2 day bonspiel is becoming a distant memory. People don't like committing to a team, don't want to practice and then wonder why they don't get better. Myself and one or two others curl at least 4x a week - yet we are looked upon as strange. Most members in my club can barely make it for 2x a week. Old Boy is viewed with a mixture of awe & horror because he curls 7x a week.
Used to be winning the Scotties/Brier then on to the Worlds was a big deal. Now, the elites focus on the Olympics. Golf has diminishing numbers but seems to survive, probably because you can just go on your own or with one other.
Looking at OCA entries in Seniors, Scotties - they are way down. Most women I know would rather pay $240 for a bonspiel than to enter an OCA zone.
Is it the clubs, Provinces or CCA's resposibility to liven up the game? When I go to a bonspiel now, the average age of the participants is at least 40.
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