Scotland has 'fighting chance' of retaining rinks, says Scottish Curling chief exec

Curling is being affected by energy prices and post-pandemic trends

The new chief executive of Scottish Curling says there is "a fighting chance" all 22 of the country's rinks will still be open in 12 months.

After a period as interim CEO, Vincent Bryson was appointed to the post on a permanent basis earlier this week.

Against a backdrop of soaring energy prices, he has warned that "challenge number one" is trying to ensure none of the rinks go under.

"We haven't lost a facility yet," said Bryson.

"But that doesn't mean there aren't a few that are close and it is making sure we can get support to them by whatever means is possible. We cannot afford to lose a single curling rink and the industry has pulled together, all the ice rinks are speaking with one voice, which is great.

"There is no getting away from the economic challenge, which is the real short term, it is right in front of us, so in terms of confident that the 22 curling rinks that we have got, is still 22 in a year's time? I would say we have got a fighting chance and the community are doing so many good things in terms of trying to stand by their rinks."

'Hard decisions need to get made'

The iconic Dewars Centre in Perth, a facility Bryson has described as being "the Hampden Park of curling" was recently threatened with closure, before receiving a 12-month stay of execution.

And Bryson said: "It would be really difficult to say, 'yes, we have got a plan for three years on facilities and it is dead easy to follow because they are all going to be there'. That is sadly looking like it might be teetering on the brink a little bit.

"Some way down the road there are going to need to be some hard decisions that need to get made, both around the provision that the ice rinks have on a public and a private sector side and of course the amount of support that is able to come from Scottish Government.

'We already get well supported as well, it is not like we could say that we are underfunded as an organisation because we don't own any ice rinks, it is private and public operators that do.

"So, when you mash all of that together, when you mash all different stakeholders and different universes that you are involved in that make up the curling ecosystem, there are a lot of things in there that we have got to try and make sure that we tread carefully around and make sure that the rinks stay open."

It is a situation that has not been helped by a "gradual" decline in the number of people taking to the ice to play the sport. The Covid pandemic and changing habits are being cited as key reasons behind the drop in numbers.

"All those factors played a part in perhaps just negatively affecting that membership and causing it to dwindle," added Bryson.

"Our membership is an older demographic - 45 years old upwards - and that has been consistent over time but as other pressures have come in to life, people may be thinking about retiring or stopping work or doing something else.

"So, our focus is to really make sure we keep hold of the people we have got, those 10,000-ish curlers we have, and the 3,000 that try curling on a regular basis through the Try Curling programme.

"Then our focus for the next four years is how on earth we can design a plan and a system that allows us to get new people in, particularly young people, and particularly young women who were affected by the pandemic as well."