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Nokia Brier Returns to Saskatoon

Nokia Brier will be held March 6-14 at Saskatchewan Place in Saskatoon, as the Canadian Men’s Curling Championship celebrates its 75th edition and fourth under the title sponsorship of Nokia, the world’s largest supplier of mobile communications.

It will mark the fifth time that the city has hosted the Brier, most recently in 2000, when the current Brier attendance record of 248,793 was established. Prior to that record-setting Brier, won by British Columbia’s Greg McAulay, SaskPlace hosted the 1989 Labatt Brier, setting an attendance mark then, as well, of 151,538. Saskatoon’s other Briers were in 1946 and 1965. Saskatoon will join Calgary (1948, 1961, 1980, 1997, 2002), Halifax (1951, 1966, 1981, 1995, 2003) and Toronto (1927-39, 1941) as the only cities to have hosted at least five Briers.

The Brier began in 1927 in Toronto and has been played in 31 different cities across Canada, from Victoria to St. John’s. Manitoba has won a record 26 Briers, while Alberta is next with 21, including the last three by Edmonton’s Randy Ferbey. New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Yukon/Northwest Territories have yet to win. Saskatchewan has captured seven Briers, four by Ernie Richardson (1959, 1960, 1962, 1963) and one each by Garnet Campbell (1955), Harvey Mazinke (1973) and Rick Folk (1980).

The 12 teams competing in the Nokia Brier will be determined during the next three weeks in provincial/territorial championships. After the round robin and any required tiebreakers, the playoff format involves the top four teams in the Page System (1 vs 2, winner to final, loser to semi-final; 3 vs 4, winner to semi-final, loser eliminated).

TSN will televise all round robin draws plus the Page Playoff games on Friday, March 12. CBC-TV will televise the semi-final March 13 and final on Sunday, March 14. Once again this year, the Nokia Brier final will be shown live in prime time, starting at 6:00 pm CT/7:00 pm ET. RDS will carry selected round robin draws, as well as the semi-final and final.

The winner of the Nokia Brier will represent Canada at the Ford World Curling Championships, April 17-25 in Gävle, Sweden. Canada has won a leading 28 men’s world titles since 1959 and 16 since 1980.

For more information contact:

Jeff Timson
Media Director, St. Clair Group
Tel/fax: 905-881-8322
e-mail: jeff@stclairgroup.com