Manitoba’s 2020 Scotties Tournament of Hearts will see a reduction in team numbers from 16 to 12 for the Manitoba women’s championship event to be hosted in February 2020 by the Rivers Curling Club.
The move has been announced as a decision of a June 1 CurlManitoba Board of Directors meeting following consultation with the Rivers 2020 host committee, competitor consultation including surveys at the past two Scotties, and extensive discussion by the competition and rules committee.
The change has been a topic of on-going assessment for several years and is being made primarily to enhance competitiveness and spectator attractiveness of the provincial championship event. Declining numbers of Scotties competitors over the last five years have resulted in nearly 75% of all teams who entered qualifying competitions in the last two seasons actually qualified for the 16-team provincial championship.
The new 12-team draw format for the championship will be announced in the near future. However, the event will continue to be staged as a stand-alone event in an arena over the same number of days. The reduction in numbers has benefits to both the volunteer host committees and the athletes.
