Curling

How to get more fans for curling? The Canadian Curling Association thinks it has the answer: screw the fans.

The trouble came about on the first Sunday of the Scott tournament after the Jones team, which entered the event with a record four straight national titles, defeated the host Newfoundland and Labrador foursome 7-3 in eight ends before a packed house.

Autograph seekers mobbed Jones and teammates Kim Kelly, Mary-Anne Arsenault and Nancy Delahunt near the sideboards, but a tournament official told the players to scurry along as other games were in progress.

The players asked for a little leeway because they didn't want to disappoint the fans. One woman begged for an autograph, saying she'd driven nearly five hours to watch them play.

"Mostly we were just trying to get the kids signed," said Jones, who estimates they stayed for only five minutes. "So were fined $300 for that."

Do they think curling fans or near-fans are sitting at home saying "I sure wish they'd hurry the players out of the building"? The motive is probably that the higher-ups in the CCA are an entrenched network that is used to dictating to players and fans alike how they prefer the game be played. Curling even has advantages over hockey as a sport that Canada could possibly export to the US: older people can play it more easily, and there are no fistfights.