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Winnipeg has been awarded 2008 Canadian men's curling championship
The Tim Hortons Brier is headed back to Winnipeg in 2008.
The Canadian Curling Association announced Wednesday that the Canadian men's curling championship will be held in Winnipeg for the first time since 1998.
``Winnipeg is always a primary spot on our list and with the new arena and the convention centre just down the street I would like to believe it will be a very successful event,'' said Warren Hansen, manager of event operations for the CCA.
The 2008 Tim Hortons Brier will be held Mar.18-24, 2008 at the 15,000 seat MTS Centre. The old Winnipeg Arena built in 1955, which hosted the last Brier, was demolished earlier this year.
``It has never had a CCA property in it before but the (Grand) Slam events have been in there the last three years,'' said Barry Greenberg, who is the chair of the event.
``It's drawn well and the community has supported it and we're pretty optimistic the people will come and see the Brier,'' he said.
There are only a handful of cities that the CCA considers for the Brier because of the popularity of the men's championship and the high fan turnout for the event. Those on the list include Hamilton, which will host the event in 2008, Saskatoon, Calgary, Halifax, Winnipeg and Edmonton which established record attendance of 281,985 in 2005.
The last Winnipeg Brier, in the old Winnipeg Arena, attracted only 147,017 in 1998 and was considered a disappointment for an area considered a hotbed of curling.
``We struggled with it in 1998. We were down a bit,'' said Hansen.
Unlike the Scotties Tournament of Hearts there is no actual bidding process per se by cities said Hansen because of the limited number of venues.
``We try to make an agreement with a primary site and should that not come together we would probably move down the road to the site we would be looking at the year after,'' said Hansen.
This will be the fifth time Winnipeg will host the Brier.
Greenberg isn't worried about public support or reaching significantly higher attendance figures in 2008.
``Winnipeg hasn't had the event for 10 years so I think the feeling in the province is that it's ready for this type of event and looking forward to having it,'' said Greenberg.