Sweeping changes: Montana’s announced as new sponsor for the Brier

Regina will be the host city for the first-ever Montana’s Brier.

Curling Canada announced Friday that the Canadian men’s curling championship is now sponsored by Montana’s BBQ & Bar. The 2024 event is set for March 1-10 at the Brandt Centre.

Montana’s follows Macdonald Tobacco, Labatt Breweries, Nokia and Tim Hortons as the event’s main sponsor.

Nolan Thiessen, the executive director of marketing and fan experience at Curling Canada, said it was time for a change of sponsorship, so the organization made the move to Montana’s from Tim Hortons.

“We are pretty proud of the Brier and the brand that it is, and we were excited to take it out to market and see what the market wanted for it because it had been a while,” Thiessen said. “We are pretty lucky that we’ve only had four partners in the first 94 editions of this event.

“We took it out to over 75 different companies to gauge interest and pretty early on in the conversations with (Montana’s), it seemed pretty serious and pretty exciting that they really wanted to get a deal done and they were really excited about the opportunity.”

The restaurant chain has nearly 100 locations across the country.

“The opportunity for Montana’s, Canada’s home for BBQ, to be affiliated with a historic and quintessential Canadian event like the Brier is an honour,” Yianni Fountas, the director of marketing for Montana’s BBQ & Bar, said in a release.

“We’re proud to be associated with the elite group of partners involved with Curling Canada’s Season of Champions and look forward to bringing our BBQ lifestyle to future events, supporting athletes at all levels and growing Canada’s game across the country.”

Regina’s Ben Hebert, the lead on Brendan Bottcher’s team, said he thought the combination of curling and Montana’s was a good fit.

“(The Brier) is like the Grey Cup on steroids — (it’s) just a little bit better, and the Grey Cup is pretty good,” Hebert said during the media conference. “It’s going to be great. They’re going to love it. Players are going to support it, fans are going to support it (and) it’s a great demographic for the sport.”

Three teams already have qualified to play in the Brier in Regina.

Defending champion Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., will return as Team Canada, and teams skipped by Bottcher and Matt Dunstone of Winnipeg have pre-qualified based on the Canadian Team Ranking System standings for 2022-23.

Hebert’s excited to compete in the championship in his home town.

“You see with the Riders (and) you see anytime they bring any other big sporting events here, Regina is one of the best sporting cities in the whole country,” he said. “(They have) passionate sports fans here — it’s no different when it comes to curling.

“Obviously I’m a little bit spoiled here. I’ve got my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister, and my in-laws are all here, and I grew up here my whole life, so we’re going to have a little secret Ben Hebert cheering section here.

“I’m sure everyone’s still cheering for Sask, but we’re going to get a few courtesy claps on our end as well, which is going to be amazing.”

Ticket packages are available online or in person at the Brandt Centre box office.