Decision to end curling at BGCC comes under fire

A national-level Brantford curler is critical of the decision to discontinue curling at the Brantford Golf and Country Club.

Article content

“It’s a very sad day. An end of an era,” said Jo-Ann Rizzo, who has competed many times both nationally and internationally. “I think it’s taken everyone by surprise. Obviously, all the curlers don’t like the decision that was made, and we all feel that it was made in haste.”

Rizzo – who holds both a golf and curling membership at BGCC – was critical of the process by which the decision to discontinuous curling was reached following a meeting of shareholders a few weeks ago. .

BGCC general manager Dave Newsome in an interview with The Expositor earlier this week said the unexpected cost of repairs to a leaking refrigeration pipe at the curling rink – and the likelihood of needing to replace the entire curling floor – would result in a significant financial assessment to the club’s membership.

Article content

“There’s not enough capital in the bucket to spend on what we need to have for curling,” Newsome said. “They just said the curling program is not busy enough to sustain the operating losses of curling.”

Newsome cited the rising cost of hydro as an example, costing $30,000 for the six-month curling season.

“We need an ideal number for curling: 75 members per sheet of ice. We have six sheets of ice, so that’s 450 curlers,” he said, adding that the curling membership last year was less than 200.

“They didn’t even look at options with flooring,” Rizzo said. “There are all these new, innovative ways to chill a floor.”

Rizzo, who is focusing on senior curling these days and preparing for a national competition, said the closure of the rink at BGCC means she’ll have to seek out practice time elsewhere.

Article content

“I wish they had at least put the ice in this year knowing that these talks would be happening for a year, and proper protocols would have been followed,” she said. “Hasty decisions wouldn’t have been made, and there would have been more transparency, but none of that happened.

“Somebody had an agenda, and it was accomplished.”

Jay Allen has been a long-time member at both the BGCC and the Brant Curling Club, located on Morrell Street, and in his 45 years of curling has organized a number of large curling events.

“I’m no longer a member at the country club due to, basically, how it was being run,” he said, acknowledging that BGCC was a “fantastic facility” for hosting major events.

“It’s not good for curling and it’s very short-sighted,” Allen said of the decision to end curling at BGCC. “I’ve been curling in Brantford for 45 years now and every five or six years this topic seems to come up: should we get rid of curling or should we not?

Article content

“I never actually thought that this would happen and yet here we are.”

Allen feels the curling floor could have lasted potentially another 10 years, and the country club could have built the expenditure for replacement over a 10-year plan that would have been less intrusive to membership, than if the project was done sooner.

In his view, the capital expenditures listed in a third-party consultant’s report were skewed, and he believed the board was the driving force on that.

“The problem that I saw — sitting in the meeting on the Monday — the numbers that the board produced, I don’t know where they got them from. I’ve been around curling and organizing for a long time. It was probably the worst version of governance I have ever seen.

Article content

“They only took from it what they wanted to take from that,” Allen observed. “You see that more often than not when someone has a hidden agenda.

“It’s sad to see that an over 60-year tradition has now ended because of one or two board members who don’t like curling.”

The decision to close down the club’s curling operation was made by a majority of shareholders. As a private, not-for-profit club, BGCC members hold a varying number of shares depending on the type of membership they have and own the financial responsibility of the entire club. That means the costs for infrastructure repairs or upgrades can result in a financial assessment going to the membership.

Sean Bryant, president of the Brant Curling Club, said his club is anticipating 50 to 60 new members this season resulting from the closure.

Article content

“It’s a good problem for us to solve,” he said. “It adds extra teams to our leagues. We have opportunities to increase draw times and add more times for people to curl.”

Bryant said that despite losing some members because the curling population is historically older, the Brant Curling Club has seen close to 100 new members join over the past three years. A learn-to-curl program this year has 47 people registered for an eight-week program that he feels will see many decide to become members.

“Not all clubs are hugely successful, you really have to work at it,” Bryant said. “Last year we were at approximately 325 (members) so I anticipate this year to be pushing 400.”

Bryant said his club’s infrastructure of refrigeration equipment was replaced three or four years ago and while the floor is older, it’s not something they are looking at replacing in the near future.

Article content

Bryant believes it’s not necessarily good for the game of curling to be losing facilities.

“It certainly limits the size of events you can host. Some of the events Jay (Allen) has run in the past were pretty significant,” Bryant noted. “If you have 32 men’s teams and 32 women’s teams you need 11 sheets of ice. Now we’re losing six sheets of ice in the community, but Paris is there, and there are options to partner with other clubs to make things work.”

When the Paris Curling Club’s board heard the news of the BGCC decision, club president Jeff Crowley said a proactive approach was taken to first take care of its current membership that has kept the club strong and open throughout the challenges of the last five years.

“But we made sure we have some open opportunities for members to come and join us,” Crowley said of his four-sheet rink that ranked 300 members last year. “It’s good to build up two clubs instead of having three clubs so close, in one respect, but I think it might hurt the game more because there are many people that might not want to travel (to play).”

Article content

The Paris club president said Curling Canada has done a great job of promoting the growth and uptake of the sport, which in some areas begins its season on the Labor Day weekend.

“The country club didn’t do its members any favors by waiting as long as they did to close down the curling part of it, and give people time to absorb the news,” he observed. “It leaves (members) very bitter and disgruntled, and not wanting to continue the sport.”

The BGCC president and general manager were contacted by The Expositor about the concerns raised but did not respond prior to publication.

[email protected]

Article content