// NEW CLUBS Four new homes fo
Milwaukee, Wausau, Blaine & Portland debut new rinks
By Ryan Maier, USCA Member Services Intern W
ith 22 sheets of dedicated ice opening before the end of 2012, the sport of curling is growing at a pace that would surprise many. Between the months of October and December, four
new facilities will be ready for league play. Wisconsin, Minnesota and Or- egon will each house at least one of these brand new, state-of-the-art facili- ties.
Milwaukee Curling Club, Cedarburg, Wis. Te Milwaukee Curling Club, established in 1845, opened the doors to
a brand new five-sheet facility this October. Te club embarked upon the challenge to build as the lease in its former facility was coming to an end. Prior to building the new facility, MCC had been focused on gaining mem- bership, a task that was becoming increasingly difficult due to the some- what secluded location at its former home. “Location, location, location” became a resounding theme in the club’s choice of a new site on the Ozau- kee County Fairgrounds in Cedarburg, Wis. “We felt that we needed a more visible location to grow our membership
and provide better opportunities for guests to try curling,” said Mark Con- rardy, MCC president. “A club should be aware of its current membership and locate [itself] somewhere that [its] members find convenient and ap- pealing.” Not only is the new club in a location central to its membership, it is visible to non-members as well. Tis should help increase word-of-mouth and, ultimately, membership as a whole. Te five-sheet facility will feature a commercial kitchen, bar, and large
conference room, which the club plans to rent out to generate more revenue. Curling will be visible to spectators through a continuous panoramic glass window, free of visual obstructions. While most of the donations the club received came from its own members, curlers throughout the U.S. and local organizations also stepped up to assist. According to Conrardy, the build- ing initiative had the added benefit of instant growth in volunteerism of club members, a theme that was carried throughout the process. “As the oldest continuously operating club in the U.S., the Milwaukee Curling Club has a rich and proud tradition. Tis tradition has carried over into the pride of ownership that our members have displayed in this project.” Wausau Curling Club, Wausau, Wis.
Te first reported curling in Wausau, Wis., began in the 1920s on the
Wisconsin River. Early outdoor curling also occurred on local YMCA ten- nis courts. Te Wausau Curling Club has come a long way since those first days, with a new state-of-the-art, eight-sheet facility scheduled to officially open the last week of November. It will be the only facility in the country to house eight regulation Olympic-sized sheets. Before committing to breaking ground, board members agreed to the
goal of raising several million dollars to ensure both that the project was feasible and that they would be able to keep curling affordable for com-
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munity members. According to Corey Sandquist, WCC president, the proj- ect was embraced by the relatively small community. Generous support of many area philanthropic foundations and major individual donors allowed the club to meet this goal. In addition to financial commitments, the club received many in-kind donations of property, labor, and materials, such as a fan system donated by the Greenheck Fan Corporation. Club members also came out in force when asked to help the club save $20,000 in labor costs by volunteering to help with the installation of the flooring system. Community support for this initiative was about more than just develop-
ing one of the premier curling centers in the country, it was about providing more opportunities for youth, seniors, and those with physical challenges to engage in the sport. Youth curling is a major focus in Wausau. With more than 170 high school curlers and counting, the club hosts three of Wiscon- sin’s most active interscholastic high school curling programs, D.C. Everest, Wausau East and Wausau West. Te previous five-sheet facility was unable to meet the growing demand for the sport. Te new club is both an invest- ment in the community as a whole and its youth. Four Seasons Curling Club, Blaine, Minn.
For the past decade, the process of starting a new curling club has typi-
cally entailed renting ice at a skating arena while building membership. Te Fogerty Ice Arena, located in Blaine, Minn., a long-time hockey venue, decided to forge ahead with a new model. Before a club even existed, they began building a new six-sheet, wheelchair-accessible dedicated ice facility that will operate year-round. “If you build it, they will come,” said Mark Clausen, general manager
at the Fogerty Ice Arena. It was that tagline that he, and the newly created Board of Directors for what is now the Four Seasons Curling Club, stood by. With the ever-growing popularity of curling in the Twin Cities metropoli- tan area, and only one dedicated curling club, which had already reached its maximum capacity – St. Paul Curling Club, with more than 1,200 mem- bers – the creation of a new dedicated curling facility seemed like a safe bet.
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