Taking Arena Curling to the Next Level

This past weekend I got to be the first person ever (as far as I know) to curl in Houston's Toyota Center! As part of a promotion with the Houston Aeros minor league hockey team, our club set up a competition where four audience members competed for a chance to win tickets to a Minnesota Wild - Calgary Flames game. Whoever got closest to center ice curling from the crease won the tickets and a flight/hotel package. My job was to throw one stone to "show them how it's done."

The experience of throwing a stone there was much different than in the little hockey rink where my club normally plays. Although most of the crowd had left already, it was still impressive seeing the thousands of seats circling the ice. (Due to the time required to set up the ice to curl, we were forced to wait until after the hockey game was over, so most people had already left.) Maybe someday we'll have a bonspiel in Houston that actually needs to use the Toyota Center! Even if we could just use the ice there for the finals of the Texas Open Bonspiel when it comes back to Houston, that would be a huge deal.

The winner of the competition was the only person that wasn't a newbie to the sport, although he hadn't curled in several decades. That's what happens when you put it on during the Aeros' Canada Night promotion. Hopefully before too long, we will be able to put on a similar exposition with the Aeros. I think that having open ice after the game for anyone to come try curling would keep a lot more people around.