Disappointed, but optimistic.
That’s the reaction of the Prince George Tim Horton’s Brier committee, who lost the bid to host the 2020 installment of the National men’s curling championship.
Curling Canada announced Kingston, Ontario as the successful city this morning, beating the Northern capital, along with St. Catherines, Ontario, and Moncton, New Brunswick.
Bid Chair Glen Mikkelsen believes PG is ready to host an event of this caliber, adding there are lessons to be learned from the experience.
“The ticket deposits that Kingston, and that Moncton had as well, were $50 each,” explained Mikkelsen.
“We had $20.20 to try and help build the brand and the awareness for it. They also reached out to local businesses and had them make some commitments in advance. Those are just a few things we noticed when we did research on the other bid committees”
Though nothing is in stone, when asked about the possibility of a bid for the 2021 Brier, he said we’ll just have to wait and see.
“The first step will be to see if Prince George City Council wants to support it to the same level or even more of a financial support that they were committing to. That’s certainly the key component that will help us start the ball rolling again to go for 2021.”
Refunds will be given to the more than 2,400 people in Prince George and across the North who purchased ticket deposits.
The bid’s price tag was listed at $10,000, according to Tourism PG.
The following is a statement from Curling Canada spokesperson Al Cameron on PG’s Brier bid falling short.
“Prince George put together an outstanding bid, and really made our job difficult in coming up with a final decision, but that’s a very good problem to have from our standpoint. The bid committee certainly gave us many compelling reasons to seriously consider Prince George for future events.”
According to a story published earlier this week from the Kingston Whig-Standard, the winning bid committee had reportedly known for a month that they would host the 2020 Tim Horton’s Brier.
George Cooke of the Curling Canada Board of Governors makes the official announcement that the 2020 @TimHortons Brier will be coming to @cityofkingston! #Brier2020 pic.twitter.com/HXjY9oiWAi
— Curling Canada (@CurlingCanada) November 1, 2018