The Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Virden was a financial hit.
The provincial women’s curling championship at Tundra Oil and Gas Place in January turned at profit in the neighbourhood of $133,000.
"I’d have to say that blows our expectations out of the water," co-chair Cory Barkley told CKLQ’s Tyler Crayston. "We were certainly looking at 100,000 as a hopeful and to have it go that high above that was a really surprise and made us pretty proud of what we accomplished out here for that week as well."
Attendance at the Manitoba Scotties was also strong with around 12,000 fans for the week.
"We had high hopes just because we hadn’t had an event in so long. With it being the first curling event in our new facility was a real benefit," said Barkley.
It was the first major curling event in the community since the 1998 Safeway Select and the province’s oil capital wants back in the hosting hack.
"Ideally we’d love to have a Safeway Championship, would probably be our next challenge. We’ll see how it plays out," added Barkley. "I’m sure three years would be soon enough or four, something like that. We’d certainly love to have a crack at that."
