Estevan will be putting in a bid for the 2026 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, hoping to host at Affinity Place.

The bid was announced on Thursday, with Estevan Mayor Roy Ludwig, CurlSask President Helen Fornwald, and Estevan Curling Club President Tyler McMillen taking turns at the podium during the announcement.

McMillen says that the club is constantly looking at events to host and decided they wanted to try and get a big event to the city.

"We constantly look at different events to bid on. We've held the men's provincials a couple of times, the women's here, the double event together was an exciting thing for us. Curling Canada came in 2018 with the Canada Cup of Curling and we just want to try something a little bit bigger and we think we have a beautiful facility and it's a perfect size for that."

"The Scotties just seems like a good fit here. I think that when we look at Regina, they just had the briar, the Scotties was in Kamloops a couple of years ago, and it was in Calgary last year. It moves to Thunder Bay and then hopefully Estevan will be the next one and we're excited to give it a try and we're excited to have hopefully the country here celebrating that and cheering on their teams." 

The group feels that Estevan is a good size to host the Scotties and looks to prove that with pre-deposit ticket sales.

"We're just a smaller market compared to Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, so that's why we want to try to do this presale ticket deposit to prove to Curling Canada that we can host that event here," said McMillen, "They encouraged us to put a bid in, so I think they're excited and they know what the facility is. So, it is a good place."

McMillen says he believes Estevan will also have enough hotel rooms, restaurants, and other amenities for all the organizers and media who come to Estevan.

Estevan would also be capable of providing a national-level ice surface, with the work of both Curling Canada and local arena workers.

"Would be similar to the previous ones, where Curling Canada has the ice makers, CurlSask helps out with that and the same type of stuff. So they follow the same thing, the city has such a great system here that they can tie into it with their computers and deal with whatever they need in ice so the surface won't be an issue."

McMillen says they may also reach out to people who were in Estevan for the Canada Cup back in 2018, such as Jennifer Jones or Rachel Holman, in order to get an endorsement of Estevan as a good place to host the games.

The group has been working on the bid since the early fall, with them now looking towards ticket deposits to help boost their bid to Curling Canada.

That bid will need to be formally submitted by September, with the successful bid being announced during next February's Scotties in Thunder Bay.

More information on the bid and how you can get a pre-deposit ticket can be found at estevan2026scotties.ca