Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling to stop in Thunder Bay

The Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling Tour will bring one of its events to Thunder Bay, Ont. in 2018.

The tour will make a week-long stop for its Tour Challenge at the Thunder Bay Tournament Centre from November 6-11, 2018.

It's the first time since 2003 that the city has held a major curling event, said John Cameron, a tourism development officer with the city. The 2003 event was the Continental Cup.

"It's sort of the biggest event on their tour of their eight event series, the Tour Challenge, which brings 60 of the top curlers in the world to Thunder Bay."

"We need two ice pads because there is a tier one and a tier two [competition]," Cameron said.

Cameron said the city estimates the economic impact of the week-long event to be $2 million, and that it will fill hotels for 1,100 room nights.

The tour attracts the top curling teams in the world, who must qualify for the tournament.

"Hopefully most of the teams that competed in Pyeongchang, Korea for the winter Olympics, including the Olympic gold medallist, John Shuster from Duluth, Minnesota and his rink, which is sure to be a good draw for this region."

Canadian curlers Kevin Koe and Rachel Homan are also expected to attend the event.

Cameron said it is a big deal for the city to host the Grand Slam, but there are also other curling events on the horizon of interest to the city.

"We're looking at hosting the Scotties Tournament of Hearts maybe again in 2021. Or, maybe we would go after ... the Olympic pre-trials, but we're definitely looking at using this event as a catalyst to bring another curling event to Thunder Bay."

Thunder Bay hosted the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in 1996.