Sales ‘Roaring’ For Olympic Qualifier
20/03/2009 05:18
Nine months before event, over half of tickets gone
Already halfway to their target of 200,000 tickets, the organizers of the 2009 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings tournament took the next step towards reaching that goal with a number of announcements on Wednesday.
Ticket sales have surpassed the 100,000 mark and Jackie-Rae Greening, chair of the organizing committee, said there'll be another big jump on Friday.
"Why do I know that? Because our mini-packs go on sale Friday morning," Greening told a news conference at the Granite Club.
"The packs will offer seven different ways to enjoy the Roar of the Rings. When you think we're still nine months away and 50 per cent of the tickets have already been sold, that's a really comfortable position to be in." She also announced the Shannon Kleibrink rink of Calgary has joined the small ranks of those already qualified for the event that will determine Canada's men's and women's entries for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.
Kleibrink joins defending Canadian champion Jennifer Jones on the women's side with Kevin Martin, who last week successfully defended his Brier title, and Glenn Howard as the two men's teams already qualified. Greening said two more men's and two more women's rinks will be named in early April.
"Another women's team really helps because a lot of the public were confused because we kept promoting two men's teams and only one women's team and then it's difficult to explain the whole points thing. And the fact we have a team from Calgary should help our full event packages.
"It's huge that teams are being named because if you think of the people who have bought the full event packages right now, they're just buying on spec. They don't know who's going to be there, they just know we're going to have the top teams in the country. But if somebody likes a particular team and that team is in there they're going to buy tickets so it helps our promotional efforts." There seems to be little doubt the Edmonton event will surpass the 159,235 fans who took in the tournament in Halifax prior to the 2006 Games, but Greening said there's no immediate plans to increase their target from the 200,000 tickets. At least not at this time.
"If the ticket sales keep going the way they are, I think we could hit 220,000," he did say.
More from the Edmonton Journal.
SWIVEL HIPS SAYS:
Why shouldn’t this surprise any of us, folks? After all, the Roar of the Rings is being held in Edmonton. And, it will be the best curling the world has ever seen – bar none. And, St. Albert's own Jackie-Rae Greening has done an outstanding job so far as the event organizing committee chair, who it seems is also in charge of ticket sales.