The Curling Group is returning to some of its original travel plans for the professional Rock League, which will debut this spring.
TCG, which also owns the Grand Slam of Curling circuit, has decided it will not hold events in Europe as originally planned when its six-week debut season begins in April.
“We're going to keep it in North America this year,” said Nick Sulsky, CEO of The Curling Group.
Six global franchises will take part in the multi-format competition. Ottawa's Rachel Homan is the captain of Team Canada 1, and Brad Jacobs is from Ste. Marie, Ontario, is the captain of Team Canada 2.
When The Curling Group announced plans for the Rock League last April, it planned to host events in Canada, the United States and Europe. Sulski said venue availability was an issue for the planned European stops.
“I've been very vocal and very aggressive about how big we want to grow this sport and how we want to take it around the world,” he said in a recent interview from Stateline, Nevada. “But the reality is that logistics is a boring thing—logistics sometimes take a little longer.”
The Curling Group plans to release detailed Rock League information for the first two seasons in mid-December, including venues, team names, dates and rosters, Sulsky said.
Other previously announced captains include Scotland's Bruce Mouat (Europe 1), Switzerland's Alina Paetz (Europe 2), American Corey Dropkin (USA) and Japan's Chinami Yoshida (Asia Pacific). Each team will have five men's and five women's curlers.
The Rock League news release will follow the Montana Canadian Curling competition, Nov. 22-30 in Halifax, and ahead of the HearingLife Tour Challenge, Dec. 16-21 in Saskatoon.
“The reality is that the Rock League is going to be a very big change for the curling world, not just for the fans, but for the athletes,” Sulski said. “And team dynamics are really important in an Olympic year.
“So we didn't want it to have any impact on the teams participating in the trials.”
The Saskatoon stop on the circuit will be the fourth of five Grand Slam events during the Olympic season. The series has had some hits and misses this year in its second full season under The Curling Group's ownership.
The series added Wheelchair Curling Invitationals, Military Invitationals and other Level 2 competitions. TCG also recently launched the Rock Channel streaming service.
However, television ratings have fallen from time to time, and the viewership problems that have plagued the series for years continue to be a problem.
The AMJ Masters final in late September averaged about 123,000 viewers, and the GSOC Tour Challenge final on Sportsnet averaged about 202,000 viewers, a network spokesman said in an email.
These totals were lower than the Players Championship final last April (an average of 225,000).
The schedule wasn't kind either. The first Grand Slam tournament outside of Canada took place a week before the US Olympic team trials.
The only American in attendance at last week's Kioti GSOC Tahoe was an impromptu foursome that included Jason Smith and Jared Allen, a former NFL player who co-founded The Curling Group. The rink, introduced as an exception for the sponsor, played with a score of 0–4 and did not make it to the playoffs.
Attendance figures were not released, but on some draws the 5,000-seat Tahoe Blue Events Center appeared virtually empty. Things got a little better over the final weekend with Homan winning the women's final and Muath taking the men's crown.
“I think the lack of Canadians coming here has been offset by incredible energy on the ground,” Sulsky said. “The fans have so much fun here. It would be great to have a sold-out arena, absolutely.”
“But the energy that these fans brought more than made up for the fact that we didn't have a sold-out arena. We're all just over the moon with how this event turned out.”
The second Grand Slam was also up against the Toronto Blue Jays' playoff coverage, which set viewing records on Sportsnet for a month. Expanded baseball coverage during the playoffs resulted in some curling ties being played in the wee hours due to tape delays.
The average audience for each Tour Challenge, which was played during the American League Championship Series between Toronto and Seattle, was 117,000, according to Sportsnet. A network spokesman declined to provide ratings for individual drawings.
The Grand Slam season will conclude Jan. 6-11 with the Players Championship in Steinbach, Man.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2025.
