Canada Cup curling coming to Fredericton in 2020
Event will feature top men's and women's teams in the country
One of the premier events of the curling season is coming to Fredericton next year.
The Canada Cup will be held at the Aitken Centre in November 2020.
The event, which falls in the middle of the curling season, will feature the best men's and women's teams in the country.
In addition to a significant purse, spots in the 2022 winter Olympic qualifiers will also be up for grabs.
The Canada Cup, which is sponsored by Home Hardware, has never been held east of Manitoba but Curling Canada's Al Cameron said the Fredericton bid organizers, led by members of the Capital Winter Club, proved Fredericton was the best option.
"It's pretty well known that Fredericton has a history of hosting first-class curling championships," said Cameron.
Jaime Watson, the vice-chair of the Canada Cup host committee, said they knew about Curling Canada's decision a couple of months ago, but had to keep it under wraps until now.
"Finally getting it out in the open today was a bit of a relief," said Watson.
"It was hard to keep a secret because we're all pretty excited."
History of curling events
The event won't be the first major curling event held in the city in recent years.
In 2019, Fredericton hosted Canadian Mixed Doubles, U SPORTS Canadian University and Canadian Colleges Athletic Association curling championships.
In 2017, the city hosted the Everest Canadian Senior Championships which sold out in less than four days.
Watson expects the enthusiasm for the sport to continue next November.
"It's kind of the same magnitude of athletes coming, the same calibre of athletes coming … except this time they're going to be playing on their own teams and we expect that the tickets will be in demand and go pretty quick," she said.
Watson said ticket information will be released in the new year but she expects them to go on sale in February.