Culture clash sees curling's appeal slide

Facilities in Toronto are closing at a rapid pace

Adam Daifallah

National Post

December 23, 2003

Every year it seems that another venerable curling facility in the city of Toronto closes its doors for good. The latest to go is the Boulevard Club, which after last season decided to build an indoor swimming pool and fitness facility on what used to be their curling grounds.

About a half dozen clubs in the 416 area code have packed it in recently. Among them are Toronto Board of Trade, Lambton Golf Club, Parkway Curling club and Humber Highland, which used to house 16 sheets of ice.

Various reasons are given as to why these clubs shut down. Some say that in the 1960s and 1970s too many curling clubs were built. Others say it is curling's failure to make enough inroads into the ethnic communities that make up a large part of Toronto's population.

"I think that's 90% of the reason," said Earle Hushagen, who was general manager at Humber Highland for 29 years until his retirement in 1990. "I think [the second- and third-generation immigrants] will come in time."

No one seems to attribute the trend to a decrease in the game's overall popularity. According to Danny Lamoureux, the Canadian Curling Association's manager of curling club development, curling is growing in other major cities, such as Vancouver and Montreal, where francophones are embracing the sport. And just outside of Toronto, in suburban areas like Oakville, Mississauga, Brampton, Richmond Hill and Whitby, the game is thriving.

It just seems to be in Toronto proper that there has been a problem.

Lamoureux believes the dip in Toronto is due to an attitude of complacency in the 1990s. Clubs neglected recruiting, marketing and customer service. He noted that it has tended to be high-end private outfits, usually golf clubs, that have closed.

"Because our sport has this mentality that it has to be cheap to be successful, [at] these big places where people were paying $30,000 or $40,000 for golf, boards were getting irritated that curlers were paying $300 and having the same seat at the bar," Lamoureux said. "They never raised the prices and let [curling] go."

For a period of time starting in the late 1970s, high school curling was dropped, Lamoureux added, resulting in a loss of "two generations of curlers." Now that curling is back in schools, the sport should thrive.

"For sure we overbuilt in the '60s and '70s," said Paul Savage, who won the 1983 world men's championship playing out of Avonlea Curling Club in Toronto. "In most cases, including Humber Highland, the land became too valuable and property taxes too high for them to continue as a going concern. Curlers don't mind spending money at the bar but seem to object to fee increases, so it was difficult for the owners to raise rental and membership fees to keep up with rising costs."

Doug Maxwell, a former owner of Humber Highland, said traffic congestion is a big issue, too.

"I think gridlock is one of the problems," said Maxwell, the editor emeritus of Canadian Curling News, from his home in Markdale, Ont. "I think it's become increasingly difficult ... for people to get from work to the curling club at 7 p.m."

There are Toronto clubs that are thriving, perhaps in part by picking up members from the closing clubs. The key, many say, is to more aggressively market the game, especially among newer Canadians.

When young families and senior citizens move out of Toronto, "they take the game with them," said Mike Rowley, president of the Toronto Curling Association.

The TCA is planning to embark on an advertising campaign in ethnic newspapers, and they are encouraging younger public school students to try the sport.

"Part of the push in Toronto is that we have to appeal to all backgrounds,” said Beth Woolnouth, a TCA director. "Curling has not done that."

adaifallah@nationalpost.com