MEDIA

Sponsors key to curling tourneys

February 23, 2011

By now, everyone should be familiar with the CCA Season of Champions that started with the M&M Meat Shops Junior Championships and are now watching the 2011 Scotties Tournament of Hearts from Charlottetown, PEI. It's hard to believe that only 10 years ago Sudbury, hosted that very championship, won that year by the Colleen Jones rink. 

These national and provincial championships couldn't be held without support of sponsors. In Northern Ontario, Nokia sponsored the men's championship until 2000, when it was held in at a location without cellphone service. Shortly after, Nokia withdrew its sponsorship. Then it was sponsored by Labatt for a time and then, up to 2007, by Kia Motors.

In 2007, the men's championship was to be hosted by the Idylwylde Golf and Country Club, but in November 2006, I learned KIA's sponsorship had been cancelled. That meant the club would be facing a financial loss unless new sponsors could be found.

The NOCA was reorganizing into one curling association and there was no help from its directors in finding a sponsor.

Sponsorships are most often developed through personal contacts who have an interest in curling. In KIA's case, the executive who supported curling was dismissed or retired. At that time, Northern Ontario usually joined with Ontario in having the same sponsor, but in this case, each association was on its own.

To the rescue came George L. Cooke, president of The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company. It goes without saying he has a passion for curling and had a plan in place to market the company through curling.

By that time, The Dominion was the official insurer of the Canadian Curling Association and the Ontario Curling Association, but had not been associated with Northern Ontario. I met him at an elementary school bonspiel Blair Morphet and I organized at the Sudbury Curling Club in 2006.

We developed a friendship and, in December 2006, after a brief discussion, he agreed to be principal sponsor the men's championship, which developed into a continuing sponsorship to this day.

That sponsorship was joined in 2007 by Nexcap Financial Corporation, whose local representative is Brent Belzile, a long time resident of Sudbury. Although Brent is not a curler, his children were, both of whom started in the Idylwylde Junior curling program, and he recognized this was a sport that deserved support.

After the amalgamation, completed in 2008, as chair of the Sponsorship Committee, I was able to confirm The Dominion as principal sponsor of our men's championship for three years, while Nexcap Financial Corporation became sponsor of both the junior and bantam championships.

Information about Nexcap can be found at www.nexcap.com. As well, it sponsors a Dominion Amethyst Camp bursary, valued at $1,000, given to a deserving youngster who might not have the financial means to attend the camp.

The Dominion has a website at www.thedominion.ca. It was founded in 1887 and provides property and casualty insurance services across Canada.

The Dominion has gone on to sponsor the Amethyst Curling Camp, held in Sudbury at the end of June. The camp attracts 96 young curlers from across Ontario and the U.S. who are taught by some of the best coaches in Canada, including Jim Waite, the national men's team coach.

In 2010, The Dominion went on to create and sponsor The Dominion Club Curling Championships.

It is George Cooke's vision to stimulate curling at the grass-roots level, whereby recreational club curlers can, as their club's champion, compete in a provincial and national championship.

Profits are donated to the Canadian Paraplegic association. In 2010, the Coniston Women's Club championship team won the Northern Ontario championship and went on to compete at the national in PEI.

In 2008, The Dominion also went on to become presenting sponsor of the CIS Canadian University Curling Championships. A young Sudbury native, and 2004 junior champion, was on the Wilfrid Laurier University men's team that won the first CIS Championship.

Now, The Dominion is sponsoring the 2011 Ontario Men's Tankard, the 2010 National Mixed Championship, the Ontario Seniors Curling Championships, the Ontario Wheelchair Curling championships and the Ontario Stick Curling Championship.

Without the support of sponsors such as the Dominion and Nexcap, the NOCA would not be able to host our own "Season of Champions" and continue to promote and develop curling across Northern Ontario.

My dream of a Timbits curling commercial cannot be far behind.

Alan Arkilander's Between the Sheets curling column appears every Wednesday in The Sudbury Star during the curling season.