In The Rings: Curling Canada still looking for Canadian Curling Trials title sponsor

With the Canadian Curling Trials just over a year away, Curling Canada is still looking for a title sponsor for the showcase event that determines this country's representatives at the Winter Olympics.

Tim Hortons served as title sponsor of both the trials and the national men's championship -- now called the Montana's Brier -- from 2005 until last year.

Unlike the previous sponsorship package, the current deal with Montana's BBQ & Bar does not include the trials.

"We're out working on it," said Curling Canada chief executive officer Nolan Thiessen.

The competition is set for Nov. 22-30, 2025 in Halifax. The winning teams will be nominated to wear the Maple Leaf at the Milan Olympics in February 2026.

In addition, the upcoming Canadian mixed doubles trials is also without a title sponsor and does not yet have a broadcast rights-holder.

Canad Inns was the previous title sponsor in that discipline, which made its Olympic debut in 2018. The 2022 trials were cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns.

The Dec. 30-Jan. 4 competition in Liverpool, N.S., will currently be available via the Curling Canada Plus streaming platform and not on regular television.

"We would love to have a linear home for it, particularly (for) the main playoffs, but we haven't had any traction yet," Thiessen said in a recent interview.

TSN has the broadcast rights for the four-player team trials.

John Morris and Kaitlyn Lawes won the inaugural mixed doubles playdowns and went on to take gold at the Pyeongchang Games in South Korea.

Morris and Rachel Homan were named as Canadian representatives for the 2022 Beijing Games but missed the playoffs. For this quadrennial, Curling Canada scheduled the trials a year earlier on the calendar.

"Mixed doubles is in a weird spot, just because I think everybody in the sport wants to grow and thinks it's a growth opportunity," Thiessen said. "Even at the World Curling level and stuff, from a broadcast perspective, it just hasn't taken off.

"It had a great launch in Pyeongchang and it just hasn't had a ton of traction since. As a sport, we're trying to figure out how to launch it better."

RESIDENCY ISSUE

Team Gushue's recent lineup changes did not solve a potential residency issue for the St. John's, N.L.-based rink.

Brendan Bottcher has joined the team in the second position as a replacement for E.J. Harnden, who left the team last week.

Teams are allowed only one import player per residency rules, but Gushue's rink gets an exemption for the 2025 Brier as defending champions. Skip Brad Gushue and vice Mark Nichols are based in St. John's while Bottcher and lead Geoff Walker live in the Edmonton area.

However, without a successful title defence or a top-three finish in the season-ending Canadian rankings, the team would not meet residency rules for the 2026 Brier.

Gushue's side is hoping to build ranking points this season by entering more bonspiels than usual.

"We wanted to make sure we had enough events that we felt comfortable if we have an OK season, that we should earn one of those wild-card spots," Gushue said.

The April 8-13 Players' Championship in Toronto will be the final opportunity for Canadian teams to earn points for pre-qualification at the Brier or Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

EPPING RISING

Veteran skip John Epping moved into the top 10 of this season's world rankings after claiming the Stu Sells Toronto title on Monday.

Epping and his new Sudbury, Ont.-based team of Jacob Horgan, Tanner Horgan and Ian McMillan defeated South Korea's ByeongJin Jeong 8-4 in the final.

That moved Epping into seventh place on a year-to-date list topped by Scotland's Bruce Mouat. Winnipeg's Mike McEwen is the top Canadian entry at No. 3 and Gushue is No. 4. Saskatoon's Rylan Kleiter is ranked ninth.

Ottawa's Rachel Homan leads the women's list. Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., is eighth and Lawes, from Winnipeg, is ninth.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

With files from Canadian Press sports reporter Donna Spencer. Follow @GregoryStrongCP on X.

Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press