The city of Estevan will not soon forget the buzz in our community during the 2018 SaskTel Tankard Men's Provincial Curling Championship which wrapped up on February 4th inside Affinity Place.
The conversion of the stunning hockey arena to a curling venue brought out fans just to experience the unique setting for Saskatchewan's best curlers. But the week was so much more than just tournament action, with an energetic atmosphere and fun times surrounding the five-day event in Estevan. 
"I believe we did very well on our attendance, though we haven't received final numbers yet," explains Devon Fornwald, Host committee member and President of the Estevan Curling Club. "We had probably at least 300 event passes, and our day/night passes sold extremely well during the week."
"It's such a big arena since 2,200 can fit in the lower part of Affinity Place, so even with 600-700 people in there it may not look full. But that amount of spectators is very well attended for a curling event."
Estevan learned that they would play host to the Tankard on December 5th, 2016. Even before then, volunteers were digging away behind the scenes to get the community ready for the provincial championship. Over the 13-month period before the Tankard arrived, many more supporters stepped up to the plate both financially and with volunteer hours to make sure this would be another stunning showcase of Estevan.
And early feedback indicates that the curling community has taken notice.
"Now since we've hosted this event, for CurlSask and Curling Canada...we're on their radar," added Fornwald. "I'm sure they're looking at us and asking 'What can they do next?;"
"The excitement is there and with our core group of volunteers, and we could negotiate something again with the city and the Estevan Bruins, it's something that we could look at doing again in the near future." 
Financially, the Tankard should also be a huge benefit for both the Estevan Curling Club and the community of Estevan. While it will take some time to sort through many of the numbers, one of the early indicators of how successful the event was is highlighted by the 50/50 raffle numbers.
A new 50/50 draw was held each day, with five winners getting a combined total of $10,058.50 in prize winnings. That also means that the Curling Club will see over $10,000 in funds coming their way, which will not only help them, but other organizations.
"A lot of the funds will go back to the club, because there's a few things we need to do to improve the building a little bit and we're happy to do our share in addition to the city helping out," states Fornwald. "We're a non-profit organization and we run our finances pretty tight to keep things going, so this will help us right away and hopefully a long time afterwards."
Steve Laycock's rink from the Nutana Curling Club in Saskatoon won the Tankard on Sunday evening and will represent Saskatchewan as the hosts of the 2018 Brier in Regina from March 3rd - 11th.
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