There is a bid underway to bring the 2018 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the Canadian Championship of Women's Curling, to Sydney. A committee has been formed to coordinate the bid and consists of seven members that are representing both the Sydney and Schooner Curling Clubs, the CBRM and Events Cape Breton. The committee is being chaired by Dave Muise who, along with Garth Nathanson and Center 200 General Manager Paul MacDonald, came up with the idea of hosting the event after the success of the Canada 55+ games that were held in Sydney in 2012. The submission deadline is June 30 of this year and a decision will be made sometime in August. If successful, the event will be run at C200 from February 4th-11th, 2018 and the honorary chair of the event will be former Nova Scotia, Canadian, and world curling champion Colleen Jones. Jones has a total of six Canadian and two World titles to her credit. According to an article in the Cape Breton Post recently, the four Island curling clubs, Sydney, Schooner, Baddeck and the Strait Area, are all on board to support the bid. The Port Hawksbury based Strait and Area CC already has some experience in participating in large curling events as they have helped host numerous past Grand Slam and have another coming soon, the Elite 10, that is scheduled for March of 2017. Muise also said that the Sydney bid meets all the main criteria to host the Scotties like venue, seating capacity , hotel accommodations and travel for the participants. He estimates approximately three hundred volunteers will be required to run the event and feels this should pose no problem given the willingness of people to help with other events similar to the Scotties in the past. In an effort to give the bid a boost, a pre-event ticket sales campaign has begun. Those looking to attend can put down a $100 deposit on a weeklong ticket package. Anyone interested can do so online at tickets.capebreton.ca. This event could give curling in Cape Breton a huge boost in exposure and popularity. As part of the event there will also be nightly entertainment scheduled for the Joan Harris Cruise Pavilion. Muise said any profits made at the conclusion of the event will be invested into junior curling programs.
