Team Canada skip Brad Gushue signals during draw four action against Japan at the Pan Continental Curling Championship in Kelowna, B.C. on Tuesday, Oct.31, 2023. Gushue says he doesn't blame TSN for dropping television coverage of the Pan Continental Curling Championships.

Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Michael Burns

Canada's Brad Gushue sounded off on the World Curling Federation on Wednesday over a long list of complaints at this week's Pan Continental Curling Championships, issues he said have left him questioning whether his team would return to play in the event in the future.

"When you come and you're playing for the honour of (representing) your country, you feel like the curling part should be the priority," Gushue said. "We don't get that feeling at all.

"It just looks like the WCF has kind of thrown in the towel on this event and I'm not sure why."

The weeklong competition — which serves as a world championship qualifier for countries outside Europe — started last Sunday at the Kelowna Curling Club.

Domestic rightsholder TSN dropped television coverage Tuesday and moved it to streaming-only options via its app and website. In a statement, a spokesperson for the network — which is using a WCF feed for its broadcasts — said "ongoing technical and feed issues" were to blame.

Gushue said his team's supporters were disappointed and upset about the change and that the squad's social media feeds were "inundated" with messages.

At the event itself, meanwhile, he said men's and women's curlers have had to share locker-room space, athletes have been forced to warm up outdoors due to limited indoor space, and teams weren't allowed to watch practice sessions — a first for him in his 30 years in the game.

Making matters worse, he said, was being told the thermal gear his team purchased to help with the cold conditions couldn't be worn on the ice because the colour didn't match the team uniforms.

"In all of these things, we were told (it was) because TV needed a certain way to produce it (on site) and then we saw that the production value was piss poor," Gushue told The Canadian Press from Kelowna.

The inaugural Pan Continental was held last year at the 2,500-seat Markin MacPhail Centre in Calgary but attendance was sparse. The WCF elected to hold this year's competition in a much smaller facility instead.

Gushue said broadcasting concerns and other issues have resulted in a "step back" for the event.

"The production value is nowhere near what we typically see at a (Grand) Slam or a Brier," Gushue said. "Then when you watch it, it looks like a streaming event. So you can't blame TSN for protecting their brand and their business and moving it to the streaming side.

"I understand people's frustration with TSN but I think the frustration should be directed 100 per cent towards the World Curling Federation."

In an email, WCF spokesperson Chris Hamilton said all broadcast partners were previously told the federation would be aiming for a "digital-first production" to make the coverage financially sustainable.

"All of our broadcast partners agreed to the feed with this knowledge, so the decision by TSN to change where they show the coverage is an internal matter for them," he said.

"Our other partners have not altered their broadcast schedules and are showing the feed on linear television."

Gushue, who won Olympic gold in 2006 and world gold in 2017, said "facility restraints" has been the go-to response when curlers have raised concerns with the WCF.

"This event was hyped to us about growing the game," he said. "I don't think the way they've run this event this year has done anything to grow the game. I would actually argue it has done the opposite."

Kerri Einarson of Camp Morton, Man., is skipping the Canadian women's team this week. In a text message, she declined to comment.

Hamilton said the WCF was trying a "number of things with our championships" as part of an effort at event sustainability. He noted that both the Pan Continental and European championships would be held in curling clubs this season.

"Once those events have been completed, we will look at the successes and challenges to evaluate whether it’s a viable model for future championships of this size," he said.

Gushue said the Kelowna Curling Club is "beautiful," the local volunteers have been "incredible" and it's always a great honour to represent Canada.

But the situation this week has left him questioning whether he'd return to a Pan Continental if asked.

"If they ran it like this, we wouldn't at all," he said. "And I would certainly advise any of our other top Canadian teams to think twice about it.

"If they made some changes — whether it's personnel changes or decision changes — something would have to change before we would look at it again."

Gushue's team won the tournament last fall in convincing fashion, topping South Korea's Byeong Jin Jeong 8-1 in the final. He said attendance woes were the only significant concern at the 2022 competition.

"If you don't put some money into it and build it up and explain to people what it's about and the importance of it, nobody is going to understand and nobody is going to care," Gushue said.

"I think the fact that they went immediately into a curling club and then put off the production that they have so far, from a business standpoint it doesn't look like very good business. It looks like someone doesn't know what they're doing or is limited in what they can do."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2023.

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News from © The Canadian Press, 2023