How/where to watch, fandom, the stakes and more
Before we get to it... how about that incredible shot Carole Howald and Benoit Schwarz-van Berkel made for Shield Curling (video courtesy Rock League above) yesterday?
If you’re a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs, then you’re a fan of Auston Matthews. He wears the storied crest and scores goals that bring joy. But during the Olympics or a 4-Nations tourney, for Canadian fans, he’s the (American) enemy.
A fan of Arsenal FC dislikes Harry Kane because he played his club games for Arsenal's biggest rival, Tottenham, a team they despise. But when Kane puts on the England jersey, English fans want him to score.
Mosaner and Marsh represent Shield CC • Anil Mungal-The Curling GroupAt the Brier, Scotties and Olympic Trials, fans cheer along regional lines. Team Christina Black of Halifax had the whole barn behind them at the Trials. The tension in the building was palpable, and you could feel the crowd willing them to make shots.
Most fandom comes from where you live. If you are born in Saskatchewan, you’re a Riders fan. Then, you get to pick your other teams. For those other squads, fandom doesn’t come naturally; tension needs to be built. Every league builds tension through playoffs or manufactured stakes.
Remember, we don’t have to manufacture the stakes at the Olympics, or the Brier, or the world championships.
A Typhoon hits Toronto • Anil Mungal-The Curling GroupRock League is now underway in Toronto, with the finals set for Apr. 12. Fans in Canada can watch on CBC Gem, CBC YouTube and Rock Channel, and all playoff games will be on CBC-TV.
ESPN+ provides coverage to the United States and, for some with ESPN+ subscriptions, other platforms like Disney+ provide access, too.
Rock League will provide two separate but important tests and questions.
The first will be fandom. Will fans of Rachel Homan become fans of Maple United? Will Scottish fans of Ross Whyte cheer for his teammate Brett Gallant (Gallant beat Scotland in the Olympic final, remember)? Are Team Homan fans willing to cheer when the individual athletes battle each other on their franchise teams?
Other leagues have proven this can happen. Winnipeg Jets fans will cheer for Connor Hellebuyck.
But that is because of the stakes.
Fans are close to the action • Anil Mungal-The Curling GroupAnd that’s the second, and hardest thing Rock League is going to have to do. Because without stakes, this becomes the Harlem Globetrotters or the Savannah Bananas.
At this point, the tension is built into the game, not into the league. Will anyone care if Maple United wins? I doubt it, at least in this first run of play before next season’s series launch.
So Rock League is trying for in-game tension. The pin being worth two points (final end only) will create in-game tension, as will the hogline challenges – where flags will be thrown at the accused player to launch the dedicated camera inquiry – and the reduced thinking time (21 minutes).
This is very much like the Globetrotters and Bananas, where all the tension and joy are in the game. The outcomes don’t matter. And to be clear, if Rock League turned into curling’s version one of those two things, it would be wildly successful and profitable.
Northern United howl • Anil Mungal-The Curling GroupIt doesn’t appear to be pitched this way, however. The marketing makes it appear as if the tension is built into who is going to win. And the rule that you can’t shake – because points matter to who wins – seems to indicate the tension is meant to be in the overall outcome.
I’m not being a downer here. Starting this is hard. Thinking through “What we want to be” is hard. None of this is simple.
Curling is having a moment right now because a massive worldwide audience watched it at the Olympics. Many of those athletes are now in this league, and the games will be fun and interesting. Seeing how people call the latter ends when the pin is worth two will be fascinating to me, a lover of curling. If you’re reading this, it will probably be fascinating to you, too. But is that enough to make it leap into pop culture?
World champion Xenia Schwaller of Maple United • Anil Mungal-The Curling GroupThe Globetrotters are a worldwide brand. The Bananas are a regional oddity, but the Bananas also sold out Fenway, so they are a profitable one.
The Rock League might never have the tension we just witnessed in the world final. Or the tension in the building at the Trials. But no sport can recreate that anyway.
So maybe lean into the Bananas and the Trotters and create joy.
I’m here for that.
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