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By Shawn Slaght
The BKT World Men’s Curling Championship, held in Moose Jaw last week, exceeded expectations for the business community.
Hotel rooms were booked solid, restaurants and bars were packed to capacity and downtown stores were seeing items fly off the shelves.
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The business community knew that the men’s world curling championship would be a massive event, but no one anticipated it would blow up to what it became.
“They were overwhelmed by what happened. I asked them, ‘What were your thoughts originally going in?’ and that over-exceeded the expectations of the businesses I talked to. I spoke with about six or eight of them,” said Rob Clark, CEO of the Moose Jaw and District Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber received estimates from Curling Canada before the event, which projected an injection of $12 million to $15 million into the local economy, based on a cumulative attendance of 60,000 throughout the week.
According to Curling Canada, the actual cumulative attendance was 77,985 throughout the week, so the chamber is expecting the economic impact could be well over $15 million.
“We’re going to knock it out of the park,” Clark said.
Clark also commented on the business community’s engagement with the world championship.
Many businesses had their windows painted, welcoming the curlers to Moose Jaw. Others ran promotions and contests to help hype up the event. All of this happened while the City of Moose Jaw flew the flags of all 13 countries that participated along Main Street.
“Even on social media, people are enjoying it. I didn’t hear one negative word. Everything was positive, positive, positive,” Clark said.
Clark also acknowledged that it took more than 400 volunteers to make the event happen, and the people of Moose Jaw stepped up.
After hosting a pair of Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the World Para Ice Hockey Championships and now the World Men’s Curling Championship, Clark said it proves Moose Jaw can host world-class events.
“People are going to be talking about this for many, many years. Hopefully people from around the world can see where we’re coming from and where we are, and maybe they’ll come and visit us. We could host more world championships in Moose Jaw. I think we deserve it. We’ve done well,” he said.
