Three-and-a-half years of waiting, planning and preparing will pay off this week, as officials welcome the curling world to Guelph this week.
The Grand Slam of Curling’s WFG Masters begins Tuesday, and runs until Sunday.
“There will be an excess of 20,000 unique visitors coming to the City of Guelph, as well as obviously our local citizens that will be attending the event,” said Rob Mungham, co-chair of the Guelph Grand Slam host committee.
He anticipates the event will immediately pump about $4 million into the local economy.
Most of the 32 teams participating arrived late last week, and have been practicing at the Guelph Curling Club.
Teams are from all around the world, from Sweden to Korea, Japan, China, Great Britain and more.
There will also be some curlers from just down Highway 7.
Waterloo’s Margot Fleming (Team Skrlik) and Kitchener’s Matt Hall (Team Kleiter) will be competing.
Mungham said there has been quite a buzz as the event draws closer.
“It’s not an event that we’ve had here for many years. The last event that Guelph hosted was about 15 years ago, and again, it was well attended at that point,” he said.
“We are expecting good attendance throughout the week as well.”
He said tickets are still on sale, but they are scarce.
“There was certainly a surge right at the beginning, because people wanted to pick the best seats in the house,” Mungham said.
“The real buzz went up when the draw schedule was released and we knew exactly who was playing where, and on what sheet of ice. Individuals were able to say ‘okay, I want to sit on this side of the arena so I can see this team.’”
Tickets are available at the Sleeman Centre box office, and online on Ticketmaster.
Draws begin Tuesday at 8 a.m. Four draws run each day through round robin play through the week.
The playoff draws run Saturday and Sunday.
