Plan to start formal curling players' association unravels

Time constraints, a lack of buy-in from some top athletes and challenges with its international scope are some of the reasons organizers cite for stalled efforts to formalize a curling players' association.

Group organizer Rylan Hartley said plans were currently "in limbo" and "incubating," adding he has decided to shift focus to talks with players a tier below the sport's elite teams.

"I've got some ideas of what it can become still," he said. "I think there's still a need for it. But almost everyone in that original group (doesn't) have enough time to be super-focused on it."

Dozens of curlers signed an initial letter of support and high-profile stars like Sweden's Niklas Edin, Canada's Emma Miskew and Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni were listed as executive members when the group's formation was announced in late 2022.

Edin, who won Olympic gold at the Beijing Games, was tabbed as interim president but the effort never reached a voting stage for formal organization.

Reached Wednesday in Toronto, he said several positive meetings were held in the months after the launch that ended up helping curlers in other ways.

"I think it started a couple of waves," Edin said. "So I think now we do have more player (groups), not the one we started, but that spiralled into a couple of other ones ... but I think we started something good."

Last season, several curlers who compete on the elite Grand Slam of Curling circuit created a group that met with then-owner Sportsnet to discuss format, tiebreaker and game setup changes that had been implemented without their input.

Changes were announced shortly after the two sides met. The series, which kicked off last week, is now owned by The Curling Group.

On the federation level, mixed doubles player Laura Walker recently completed a one-year term on Curling Canada's board as its first full-status athlete governor. She's now serving a two-year term as chair of the athlete advisory council, which will be represented and have a voice at board meetings.

The World Curling Federation also increased the number of members on its athlete commission from six to 10. Canadians Matt Dunstone, Collinda Joseph and Chelsea Carey are in that group with chair Tyler George of the U.S.

"I think one thing we've done a good job of in the last year or two is just finding ways to make sure the (athlete) voice is heard within each of the organizations and the subgroups," Dunstone said.

Hartley, meanwhile, a lower-tier curler who has been involved in event management, promotion and online streaming services, originally planned to have four regions (Europe, Canada, U.S., and Pacific-Asia) represented in the group along with a next-gen contingent.

However, in the same introductory news release, he announced plans to run the "Players' Tour," which attracted several top teams to a handful of events last season. The double-barrelled approach rubbed some athletes the wrong way, with things coming to a head on a well-attended Zoom call.

"Several athletes spoke up during that meeting, me being one of them, and spoke that there were some conflicts of interest in what was happening there," said Canadian skip Brad Gushue. "I believe a players' association has to be solely about the players. It can't have the participation of the events that we're playing in.

"It can't have the participation of people that have control over the players. We have to be separate and independent and until we can get to that point, to be honest, it's not worth putting something together because it's just going to backfire on us."

Hartley said he felt there wasn't a conflict as he was simply volunteering his time with the effort. He noted that he didn't have any voting power and that Edin was the group's leader.

"I was putting documents forward that the players could edit and that was it," Hartley said.

Ranking point arrangements, tournament formats, creating rules and qualification processes are just some of the subjects that curlers have had issues with over the years. Other players' associations have been created in the past but didn't last on a long-term basis.

"I'm not sure if it will or can ever get off the ground," Dunstone said. "Obviously it's a lot of work. It has to be a player-run organization. It's just when you have a bunch of full-time athletes that are obviously working on their craft and wanting to become the best in the world, to invest time in that area too is obviously a very difficult thing to do.

"You'd have to find a large group of motivated curlers to want to get this off the ground and I just don't know if that's quite there yet."

One of the other challenges, Edin said, is that it's a laborious, volunteer project with players based around the world. Many curlers also have to balance regular jobs and family responsibilities with their athletic pursuits.

"I think the group in itself was a really good group of curlers, we had a lot of good talks," Edin said. "But at the end of the day, it took a little bit too much time before we could make decisions that could actually change anything.

"So I think that was the problem."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2024.