Brier will get better as the week progresses

TUESDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — There seems to be some fretting going on about the size of the crowds at the Brier. As the television cameras pan past the games, the empty seats are obvious.

That’s nothing new for the early rounds of major curling events in Kamloops. Our city is one of the smallest to host events such as the Brier, Canada Cup, World and  Scotties curling events, and we simply can’t draw the same sized crowds that big cities do..

Neither is it unusual for other sports, such as tennis, to experience smaller crowds in early rounds.

As an aside, the quality of curling hasn’t exactly been the best ever, either. In a classic game of inches, draws have come up short by several feet, takeouts have been blown through the house.

Not that there hasn’t been some fine curling at times, but maybe we got spoiled by the Olympics, where the shot-making was simply spectacular.

Some days, the Brier curling here has barely surpassed your everyday club competition.

But that’s nothing new for bonspiels, either. Even Brad Jacobs had a shaky start at the Olympics but got better and better and was clearly the deserving gold medallist.

That will happen at the Brier. The Canadian Curling Association and Tim Hortons Brier are doing everything possible to make this Brier an exciting and entertaining experience.

Over the next couple of days, the size of the crowds will increase, the curling will get better, and all who attend will be glad they did.