Curling is quietly having its biggest year ever
Club memberships are up, broadcast numbers are up and the sport is younger than it has been in decades.
Ten years ago the conversation was about club closures. This season, four rinks in the region are running waiting lists.
The growth is coming from a demographic clubs spent years failing to reach: people in their twenties who have never held a broom.
The learn-to-curl pipeline
Short introductory leagues with no season-long commitment turned out to be the entire unlock, converting curious first-timers at a rate nobody predicted.
Broadcast audiences have followed, with weekend draws now outrating several established properties.
The bottleneck is ice time, which is the happiest problem a club can have.
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