Lost Brier bid won’t deter future efforts: officials

Brandon will continue to bid on major curling events despite not being awarded the 2028 Brier, local officials say.

On Monday, Curling Canada announced that Red Deer, Alta., will host the country’s top men’s curling championship from Feb. 25 to March 5, 2028. Brandon announced in July it had bid on the national tournament.

“While we are certainly disappointed (to) not have been selected as the host city in this cycle, we knew going into the process that this is one of Curling Canada’s premier, highly sought-after championships with strong bids also being submitted from other cities,” Brandon First executive director Jennifer Watson said in an email Thursday.

Watson said Brandon will be “actively bidding on future events,” and that Brandon First, which promotes the city as an event host, is proud of the “comprehensive proposal” the bidding team made.

“Putting together a bid of this scale requires tremendous collaboration, and the groundwork we have laid has positioned us well for the road to our next big event,” she said.

Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett said on Thursday that he had always hoped the city would win the bid.

Fawcett told the Sun that Brandon representatives met with Curling Canada officials, who “were very open about the fact that we were a tight second to Red Deer.”

He said the city has an eye on future Briers or the 2029 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials, which determines who will represent Canada in the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps.

“That’s a big one that everybody would like to get their ability to host. So we’ll bid again on it. Brandon’s always in the mix on these things,” Fawcett said, adding the city also hopes to bid on the Canadian Hockey League Memorial Cup.

The city had bid on the 2025 Olympic trials, but came up short to Halifax.

“We’re always on the radar of Curling Canada. So, we will be getting another one,” he said of the city’s chances of hosting another major tournament.

Brandon previously hosted the Brier in 1963, 1982 and 2019. It hosted the Olympic trials in 1997 and has also hosted the Scotties Tournament of Hearts twice and the 1995 men’s and women’s world championships.

Fawcett said the recency of Brandon last hosting the Brier in 2019 probably didn’t help this time around.

Red Deer is hosting the tournament for the second time, having previously held it in 1994.

In a press release on Monday, Curling Canada CEO Nolan Thiessen said Red Deer had “submitted a tremendous bid.”

Curling Canada’s director of communication and media relations, Al Cameron, said the organization can’t share which other cities or how many placed bids, as it is a confidential process.

“There were some cities that received disappointing news, but we encourage them to keep trying,” Cameron said in an interview. “There’s a reason this event is desired to be hosted by numerous cities, and we encourage them to keep trying because the rewards for those cities when they do get the opportunity to host the Montana’s Brier are significant.

“We do like taking this event to different cities, and we look forward to doing that in the future.”

The popular 18-team event came with an $800,000 hosting fee, which Fawcett previously said would have been split between the city and provincial government.

Bidding documents showed that the tournament would have had a $10- to $20-million economic impact.

The 2019 Brier drew about 75,000 spectators, with visitors spending an estimated $2.8 million in the city during the week-and-a-half-long event.

While the event would have filled hotels and brought more people to the city, Fawcett said he knows the Keystone Centre will still be able to find events to fill that time slot set aside for the Brier. A small positive in losing the bid, he said, is that scheduling for Wheat Kings games will be easier.

Nate Andrews, who was on the board that submitted the bid for the Brier, said you can never know who else might be bidding and making an aggressive push in any given year.

“Sometimes the numbers just don’t work out,” Andrews said. “That doesn’t mean that we won’t go right back at bidding on something again. We always learn a few things from these bid processes.”

He added that a variety of factors can go into the decision on the winning bid, like the venue for games or proximity to an airport.

“I don’t think there’s any reason that Brandon isn’t an excellent place for it,” Andrews said. “Just unfortunately, when you have other cities that are trying just as hard as you to get these things, sometimes you just miss out.”

While the decision is “disappointing,” Red Deer hasn’t hosted the tournament in more than three decades, he noted.

“If you’re willing to put the time in, eventually you’re going to put us in a situation where you know Curling Canada is probably going to make Brandon a choice again, is my belief.”

If the city does bid for the 2029 Brier or Olympic trials, the bids would likely need to be submitted in a matter of months. The bid for the 2028 Brier was due at the end of this May, Curling Canada documents show.

Watson in her email congratulated Red Deer and said Brandon First wishes them “every success in putting together a memorable experience.”

Representatives for the Keystone Centre did not respond to an interview request on Thursday or Friday.

» alambert@brandonsun.com