Roar of the Rings Olympic curling trials in Saskatoon the 'hottest ticket in town'

Roar of the Rings underway in Saskatoon WATCH: The country's top curling teams are competing to find out who will represent Canada at the Winter olympics. Pat McKay reports.

SASKATOON — The 2021 Roar of the Rings Canadian Olympic curling trials are set to get underway Saturday afternoon in Saskatoon, it’s considered Curling Canada’s biggest event.

“It's a first time event for us at SaskTel Centre, (we) couldn't be more delighted to host it and it's going to be such a fun event,” said SasktTel Centre executive director Scott Ford.

The very best curling rinks in the country will be participating, including Saskatchewan’s lone representative Team Matt Dunstone, which made a surprise shakeup on Thursday by announcing third Braeden Moskowy dropped out of the trials for personal reasons.

"We have had to make an unexpected change to our line-up as Braeden is unable to compete at this time, due to personal reasons," Team Dunstone wrote on Twitter. "We are grateful to have Colton Lott join our team as our third for the week & look forward to the next nine days of competition at the trials!"

Lott, 26, was teammates with Dunstone in junior curling, winning Canadian titles in 2013 and 2016. This year, he’s played third for Team Pat Simmons.

Team Dunstone will be on the ice Saturday night at 7 p.m. against Team Mike McEwen.

Regina native Ben Hebert says it makes sense for a spiel of this magnitude to be played in a “curling hotbed” like Saskatchewan.

“I think the fans of Saskatchewan of any sport, football obviously you see with the Riders, curling growing up here, Sasky has the best sport fans in the country,” Hebert said.

“(I’m) super proud to be from here and super pumped to come play at home, and have a bunch of family and friends coming up from Regina.”

A two-time winner of the event, Hebert says being prepared with a great mindset and healthy body is key.

“Need a lot of breaks along the way, and if you get all those (and) they line up, at the end of the day you get to be (on) Team Canada at the Olympics,” he said. “I've been pretty fortunate to be able to do it a couple times, but a third time would be great.”

Ford says the Olympic trials in Saskatoon has many benefits.

“The big winner is tourism in Saskatoon where we're actually generating a ton of economic development,” said Ford.

“Economic impact is massive with hotels, shopping, restaurants, and all the great things that having all these visitors coming into our community generate for our market.”

Here’s what else you need to know:

TICKETS SELLING FAST

“We're looking at a full lower bowl, which is over 4,000 people and then we're selling hundreds of tickets a day,” said Ford. “It's the hottest ticket in town right now.”

“We're really happy with the numbers and it's only getting better every day.”

Ford says ticket sales plateaus as the tournament approaches the middle of next week, and spikes for championship weekend and when Team Matt Dunstone is on the ice.

“It's nice to have one team from Saskatchewan represented,” said Ford.

“It would have been nice to have a team on the women's side, but you know, our Saskatchewan rep is going to be a top team. He could win the whole thing. So it's going to be very exciting.”

NO TICKET NEEDED FOR THE PATCH

Ford says the patch at the New Holland Training Centre on Marquis Drive will open at 11 a.m. daily, and no ticket is needed.

“They have two big screens in there, people can go there and watch the curling, they have all kinds of games and entertainment happening at the patch,” he said.

“It stays open past midnight, so it's always the social atmosphere for any kind of major curling event, and it's going to be tons of fun.”

Ford says shuttles will take people back and forth from SaskTel Centre to the patch all day.

REQUIRED PROOF OF VACCINATION

“We're following Curling Canada's lead,” said Ford. “Curling Canada’s requirement is proof of vaccination, but they do not allow a negative test and that correspondence has gone to all the ticket holders everybody's aware of that policy.”

Ford says there will be security and events staff personnel checking people at the door, but expects the process to be efficient.

“Proof of vaccination supported by photo ID, and that proof of vaccination must have happened 14 days out from the date they come to the event,” he said. “It can be your QR code on your mobile, it can be the little business card that you got when you first got vaccinated, or it can be a document that you printed from your health association.”