6 April 2025

BKT World Men’s 2025: An unforgettable experience for Moose Jaw

By any measure you care to use, Moose Jaw’s hosting of the BKT World Men’s Curling Championship 2025 will go down as a great success.

And while the figures are yet to be finalised, there is no doubt that the impact on the local economy will be pleasing, as well as the ‘feel-good’ factor for the whole local community — curlers and non-curlers alike.

So, how was Moose Jaw selected to host this event in the first place?

Moose Jaw meets all the requirements

Firstly, World Curling and Curling Canada have a contractual agreement that either the men’s or women’s world championship will be staged in Canada every season. So, more than for any other country, the opportunity to host a world event regularly becomes available.

And with these regular opportunities, Curling Canada has a formalised ‘requirements for hosting events’ protocol that guides venue selection — not just for World Curling events, but for the major Canadian championships too.

This hosting guide lays out minimum requirements — such as size and suitability of venue — but, at the end of the day, it details the vital provision that “Curling Canada must be confident that the site selected can be financially successful and that there will be civic and provincial support of the event.”

With this protocol steering venue selections, Curling Canada’s Chief Executive Officer Nolan Thiessen provides some extra information. “When we host events, there are three things that we need: a really engaged curling community; having a good building — we’re a travelling circus, so you need to have a building that’s really engaged with you; and then, having local tourism bodies or cities that are really engaged really helps.”

The tens of thousands of spectators who attended this championship in person would readily agree that Moose Jaw ticks all three of these boxes. Thiessen expanded on these factors and said, “Look at the building — we have nine days of people going through the turnstiles and it’s super-busy.

“The curling community wants to showcase the sport and leave a lasting impact through ticket sales. It creates new curlers — I was one of them. My first event was the Scotties in Brandon, my hometown and I wanted to start curling.”

And perhaps, most importantly, he said, “The cities like our events because of the economic impact — the ‘heads on pillows’ effect.”

One of the biggest successes of the championship has been the adjacent Original 16 Patch — the vibrant social hub of the event. And while the Patch has been consistently busy, it is not the main economic driver, as Nolan explained, “The Patch isn’t the biggest money-maker, but it makes a huge part of the event experience that we want to add to the event.”

Community coming together

Among the visitors to the championship was the Honourable Bernadette McIntyre, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, who just happens to not only be a major curling fan but also an umpire and official. She said, “It’s just great for Saskatchewan to host the worlds. We have a huge heart and we provide the best hospitality in Canada.”

She added, “It’s great for the community too. Even if they’re not curlers, people volunteer and they become part of this whole team, welcoming the world.

“People get behind it and they get more enthusiastic about their own community after doing something like this. And the legacy is an uptake in curling. You get more people becoming curling fans, and it increases our volunteerism rates, because they feel such a wonderful sense of accomplishment.”

The championship has received financial support from the province, but Bernadette says, “The economic impact is multiple times what we put in. It just makes a real difference. It’s real money in business’s pockets and that’s what we want.”

Added together, all of the things that have happened in Moose Jaw at the BKT World Men’s Curling Championship 2025 have made it an unforgettable experience.

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