Is AB-SK vs AB-ST catching attention?
At this time of year it’s an annual rite of passage to watch Canadian curling fans rage about TSN’s game coverage choices.
Any moment now, they will start squawking about their favourite team not getting any air time during the Brier in Kelowna.
Because I think statistics are fun, I tallied up the number of times each team at the recent Scotties Tournament of Hearts championship in Thunder Bay achieved “featured televised game” status on TSN during the round robin (not playoffs).
The Scotties and Brier offer four games contested during each draw, and each team plays eight times. If everything was perfectly equal, each team would be featured twice.
Here’s how many times each STOH women’s team was featured on TSN:
Canada (Homan) — 5
Saskatchewan (Martin) — 4
Manitoba (Cameron) — 4
Manitoba (Einarson) — 4
Ontario (Inglis) — 3
Nova Scotia (Black) — 3
Alberta (Skrlik) — 3
Quebec (Ste-Georges) — 3
Alberta (Sturmay) — 3
Northern Ontario (McCarville) — 2
Manitoba (Lawes) — 1
British Columbia (Brown) — 1
Teams that might as well not exist: Newfoundland and Labrador (Brooke Godsland), Prince Edward Island (Jane DiCarlo), New Brunswick (Melissa Adams), Nunavut (Julia Weagle), Northwest Territories (Kerry Galusha in her last-ever STOH) and Yukon (Bayly Scoffin).
When the STOH and Brier fields were smaller (12 teams before 2015) there was at least a token effort to showcase as many teams as possible. With the expansion of the field to include “wild card” teams—which deemphasizes winning your province—and splitting the field into two pools, there are more teams and less games.
Hardcore curling fans will pretty much watch whatever game that is shown. But it’s the casual sports fan just looking for something to watch that might not be hooked anymore.
They have a built-in rooting interest if the provincial teams are emphasized. There’s not much there for them if they turn on TSN and see the two wildcard teams from Manitoba playing, nor will a scoreboard showing AB-SK vs AB-ST catch their attention.
Without the broader appeal, interest will wane.
You can also look at the table another way. Group the wildcard teams together with their province, and see which provinces get the featured TV coverage:
MB — 9
AB — 6*
CA — 5*
SK — 4
ON — 3*
NS — 3
QC — 3
NO — 2
BC — 1
*Since Team Homan is from Ottawa—as Curling Canada approves—then Ontario arguably had two teams and vaults into second place with eight featured appearances. If you stubbornly believe Team Homan is really from Alberta, that province takes over first place with 11 appearances.
I concede that provinces with the most coverage are the ones with the highest potential viewers (AB, SK, MB, ON), and coverage later on in the week will almost always feature the games with playoff implications.
But I feel we’re losing something with the hyper-focus on the top ranked teams.