On the New-Look Slams, the Olympics, and Team Chemistry
A dip into the mailbag for the first half of a big two-parter...
And we’re back! What an offseason it has been so far! MAJOR lineup changes, some more World championships, the Slams changing hands…it’s going to be a wild summer. That was reflected in your questions, as I got more questions than I think I ever have before on Twitter, so many that this will be a TWO-PART mailbag. So here’s Part 1.
Before we get started, a reminder that my podcast about Broomgate drops this Monday, May 6th! The first two episodes of the six-part series are out then, and then the remainder will drop one episode at a time for the four weeks following. I’ve been working on this project for over two years, and I’m so excited for you to hear it. More content to come on that, but for now, you can listen to the trailer and follow/subscribe to the podcast (for free!) by clicking this link:
https://link.chtbl.com/ijykS7P8
That way, you’ll never miss a single episode once it’s released. Alright, on to your questions!
I think team chemistry is important, and it can absolutely make a team better than the sum of its parts. That was evident this season with Mike McEwen’s run at the Brier. Once that team really started to jell, they became one of the best teams in the country and earned a Wild Card berth for next year. That said, it’s not everything to a team’s success and I think Canada in particular has had lots of teams throughout its past where not everyone is best friends—or even likes each other—and still has managed to find success. I think most teams would tell you that you can stay together as long as you want and love each other like a family, but talent still stands above chemistry. Chemistry is just a piece of it.
I’m guessing this comment is about Team Bottcher in particular, and I think that’s a special case where Marc and Ben are retiring after this quad and want to find a mix that they don’t think they have with Brendan. I think in their case, it is actually about chasing chemistry. Marc/Brad already have it from spending 3 years in the house together, and I think they feel like their outsized personalities would benefit from a skip with a more outsized personality, as opposed to Brendan, who is more reserved.
I think it would be great, as I know 5U is huge in the States. The only issue I foresee here is how deep curling is in Canada. What does 5U mean here? Lots of Canadian curlers have high school and club curling littering their past. Can our country properly accommodate new curlers and encourage them in this way, or are our leagues too established to allow for the proper development of 5U players? I’m not sure. What I mean to say is that the path right now in a lot of Canadian clubs is:
Learn to Curl (or just randomly sign up for a league) → Beginner’s league (if the club even has one) → play front end for a long-established skip in a men’s/ladies/other league
So I’d think there needs to be infrastructure at the club level to support new curlers coming in and encouraging them to form their own teams with everyone at roughly the same experience level, but without having to play in established leagues where they get their asses kicked every week. I think it’s something that could absolutely boost the game in the country, but things would have to change at the club level for sure and I don’t know if that’s entirely realistic.
It’s a very interesting question and one Kevin Martin has pondered about often on Inside Curling. The short answer is that I really don’t know. What’s the path to that where it makes sense for curling teams? Here’s two things I know to be true about elite competitive curlers:
They are very protective of everything they do, information/team-control wise. Just look at how new teams/players are even announced. Rather than let established media break the news for more views/attention like in other sports, the teams often insist on doing it themselves so they can control the messaging. Teams are going to be very weird about accepting this as an overall change.
Curling teams don’t make that much money. How and by whom is the GM being paid, and how much are they making? What exactly does their role look like? Are they in control of the team’s travel/practice schedule/administrative/socials and what does that look like?
The only way I ever see this happening is if there’s enough money in the game where teams are owned by companies, similar to what happens with the Japanese curling teams. They’re all owned by businesses, though they don’t have a GM-type structure. I could see a future where, let’s say, Princess Auto says “ok. We have $150,000 we’re willing to give to one curling team. $30k of that is going to a general manager who picks the team, does all of their non-curling tasks, and sets the team’s lineup year-over-year”. But is that enough money for a person to want to GM? Or for a team to accept one? Until/if we get to a future where there’s millions of dollars at stake, I can’t see it.
Let’s answer a few questions about the GSOC in a row.
For 2026-27? 8 Slams. 4 Canada, 2 US, 1 Europe, 1 Asia. Feel free to swap one of the Canadian Slams for an extra one in Europe if you’d like.
This question comes in from faithful subscriber Cate. Thanks for subscribing, Cate! To be quite honest, I don’t know what it means. Does that answer your question? Haha. I can take a few guesses, though. To me, what I’ve heard a lot from Nic Sulsky (the new head of the Slams) is the word content. He wants there to be more supplemental content around the Slams/curling in general, and for a sport that is an absolute WASTELAND of content compared to other sports, I couldn’t be happier about that (and not just because I’m one of the few curling content creators).
Does that mean more streaming? I’m not sure, but you have to think that if you’re spending millions of dollars to buy a property, probably the first thing you set to work on is getting it seen in more places. Nic’s already said they’re pitching the Slams to US TV networks, and I’d imagine if you just spent millions of dollars on a thing, you’re none too pleased that two of the days of the thing aren’t televised or even streamed on the internet. So I’m sure they’re looking at that.
Nic has also made it pretty clear so far that he doesn’t like blank ends. Will there be rule changes so he doesn’t have to see them anymore? I don’t know. The Slams will still in some ways be bound to what World Curling and to a lesser extent Curling Canada are doing, because you want your top teams to play in the Slams. If the Slams permanently switch to all Skins games or other weird formats you don’t see at the Brier/Worlds, you may lose some teams. So any rule changes I think will have to have player input, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the TCG’s stamp put on them pretty quickly. The one nice thing with the Slams with regards to rule changes is that you don’t have to do them at every Slam. They’ve toyed with different formats for different Slams in the past, and I wonder if we see the return of some of that.
Five changes?? Wow, Nic has a lot of faith in me. I’ll try not to turn this into its own giant newsletter and keep it as short as I can.
Tier 2. The Slams still feel vibrant enough now, but if we keep heading the way we are, in 10 years, there will not be enough teams to populate the Slams. There needs to be a firm Tier 2, and it needs to exist both within and outside of the Slams. For example, I have heard some chatter that maybe each Slam would have its own Tier 2 event, so like the Tour Challenge, but at every event. That’s great, but also causes its own set of issues. Tier 2 teams have WAY less funding than Tier 1 teams, and getting to every Slam would not be easy. A true Tier 2 would need to include a smattering of WCT events as well so teams wouldn’t be precluded from participating if money is a barrier.
Broadcast. Curling broadcasts have looked exactly the same for the entire time they have been televised. The Slams have made some minor innovations (around the rings coverage, some new camera angles), but for the most part, it’s the same product as the Brier/Scotties product on TSN and the product on CBC before that, etc. I would love something a little more dynamic, with pre- and post-game shows, and I think it’s gotta look younger. No offence, but the commentator acting the part of audience surrogate in between two 55+ year-old former players is getting a little stale for my liking. You don’t have to fire anyone or anything, but some adjustments to the overall look and feel are needed. The Slams are the perfect place to experiment. No other sport goes to such great lengths to describe the fundamentals of the game every single broadcast, and I think it’s time to start treating the audience like they’re knowledgeable, and if they aren’t, to let them catch up on their own.
Audience. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: put the audience on the ice. Yes, the Slams has the on-ice lounge, but I want more. I want them surrounding the sheet, particularly during the final. Let’s get some atmosphere going.
Super Tournament. Curling used to be very good at these. The Canada Cup East and West, the Skins Game qualifiers, etc. We used to run 32- and 64-team tournaments with zero abandon. Enough with this 16- or 24-team, RR stuff. That’s fine most of the time, but I wanna see a year-end, winner-takes-all, 64-team triple. Do it in two arenas, whatever you gotta do, but who doesn’t want to see that? Make it a mecca event, something fans will want to travel to. Put $250k up for the winner. Let’s get wild.
Make the Curlers Talk. Since I’ve already touched on the content piece, it’s time for curlers to step up and start saying how they really feel. I know they have relationships with other players and teams and don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but…it’s time to start hurting some feelings. You want people to care about the sport? These are the sacrifices we have to make. You can be friends in 10 years when we’re all retired. For now? Tell us how you really feel. Please. I’m begging you.
This one comes in from subcriber Jeff. Thanks for subscribing, Jeff! Luckily, the women’s answer is very easy right now, and it’s simply that you take Team Homan in its entirety. They’re fresh off the best season in curling history, you have everyone playing down a position and that has completely maximized their strengths, the team chemistry is clearly there, and Rachel Homan is playing as good as she’s ever played. Easy. And I’ll take Shannon Birchard as my fifth.
On the men’s side, I think I’d get a little more frisky and I’d take Brad Gushue and Mark Nichols, alongside Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert. For me, Brad’s the best last-rock thrower in the men’s game currently, and his chemistry with Mark is unparalleled. Plus, Mark is still an amazing thrower so you can’t break them up.
Get Marc back down to second for a bit, obviously he’s one of the best thirds in the world but he has experience at second and can still sweep (and is an excellent judge) so I’d get him down there to maximize my team’s chances. And obviously Geoff Walker has the built-in chemistry with Brad and Mark so it’s tough to leave him out, but Ben has an edge in sweeping and the slightest of edges in shooting, and I don’t want to die. So Ben it is. Plus you get the added bonus that it might be the final quad for all four of these guys, so they’ll want it almost as bad as I do (potentially about to die). And for my fifth I’ll take Brett Gallant. Can play up and down the lineup, has familiarity with all four players, and the team will need a bit of youth just in case.
Alright, there you have it! Part 1 done and dusted. I’ll get to a bunch more of your questions later this week as we continue to wrap up this season. And go listen to the Broomgate trailer!!! See you soon.
Three more ideas:
1. A “Drive to Survive” style documentary with all of the behind the scenes drama.
2. A post-game show for major events. Broom stacking with both teams that just played sitting around a table (with alcohol) talking. With your comedy background you could be a good host.
3. High tech broadcasting. Real time display of speed, rotations, line, etc. If bowling can do it, why not Curling.
Bonus - more coverage in the US!
Super stoked for your podcast! Listening to you now on 2 Girls and a Game, really enjoying the episode!