It’s my Parting Shot to analyze the results of yesterday’s Have Your Say/internet news poll question – and to reveal my vote and rationale for it…..
The question posed yesterday, as something different from all the provincial budget and no Hoopla and teacher’s job action news, was Which major curling championship would you most like to see next be held in Saskatoon? There were five options provided – Canadian Men’s Brier, Canadian Women’s Scotties, Canadian Olympic Trials, World Men’s or World Women’s.
If you haven’t voted, sorry you are out of luck as the deadline to do so was 10 o’clock this morning. I can tell you that the only way to “stuff the ballot box” for any one option was to use multiple I-P addresses because once you voted once from a particular I-P address, you and that address were done!
No matter, the top vote-getter was the Brier at 38.8 per cent of over 200 respondents, followed by the Scotties at 22.4 per cent, the Olympic Trials at 21.4 per cent, the World Men’s at 9.5 per cent and the World Women’s at 8 per cent.
There are two sides of thought with regards to this. Yes, the Brier is still the competition that draws the most interest in folks having an event come here. But, it’s not overwhelming in favour! Is SaskTel Centre too big to hold a Scotties? Not if you curtain off the Upper Decks when draws require it due to ticket sales or lack of same!
I voted for the World Men’s Championship. I’m sure there are logistical reasons why that option hasn’t been pursued in the past in Saskatoon, but those things aside, I am surprised that Central Saskatchewan curling fans aren’t amped up to see the best in the world! Yes, there are a lot of great teams in Canada that would beat many of the representatives from the 13 countries that take part, but I can also tell you that there are a lot of teams across Canada that would waffle the year-to-year representatives from Yukon and Nunavut and some of the Atlantic provinces!
Let’s not close our minds completely to a World Curling Championship in Saskatoon is all I ask!!
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!…..