Cape Breton hopes Scotties Tournament of Hearts will be sweeping success

People in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality are hoping for a winning week, on and off the ice, as the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts sweeps into town.

Sixteen teams from across Canada will compete in the Canadian women's curling championship.

They'll bring with them national media attention, thousands of family and fans and millions in economic activity.

"We're expecting nearly 6,000 people over the next 10 days, generating about $5 million worth of spending in the area," said Kathleen Yurchesyn, the executive director of the Cape Breton Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Across the municipality, hotels are fully booked, restaurants are hiring extra staff and business are extending their hours in what is traditionally a slower time of year, said Yurchesyn.

She added it's an opportunity to showcase the island, especially for people who have not visited previously.

"There's lots of opportunity for repeat tourism and for people to experience Cape Breton for the first time."

The event takes place over 10 days at Sydney's Centre 200, which has been transformed this week from a hockey arena to a curling venue.

Paul MacDonald, manager of Centre 200 and vice-chair of the event, said he's feeling "the anticipation and the nervousness" as the first game approaches.

"You look around the building, they've done a tremendous job of turning this over within a week and I think people are going to be extremely excited to see what happens," he said.

Teams were getting their first chance to try out the ice surface Friday morning.

"The ice is great, it has lots of curl," said Stephanie Guzzwell, the third with Team Newfoundland and Labrador, adding she normally plays at a curling club and not an arena. "Arena ice is faster. It's going to be a learning curve."

Guzzwell said all the members of the Newfoundland and Labrador team have played at the Scotties before on other teams, but this is their first year together.

She's excited to be in Cape Breton because friends and family of all the team members are able to make the trip.

"We're not the home team, but we're close enough," said Guzzwell. "There's always a little bit of added pressure on the home team, so let's call us a close second."

Action gets underway Friday night with a wild-card game between Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., and Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alta. The winner enters the draw for the week while the loser goes home.

Nova Scotia will be represented this week by a team skipped by Jill Brothers of the Mayflower Curling Club in Halifax. The event wraps up on Sunday, Feb. 24.

The winning team will represent Canada at the 2019 world championship in Denmark next month.

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