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Broomgate: A Curling Scandal, Episode 2

Host: John Cullen

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FIRST SPEAKER: Next into the den.

SECOND SPEAKER: Hurry hard, Hardline! Hurry hard!

THIRD SPEAKER: These two entrepreneurs are aiming for a clean sweep with what they claim is a revolutionary curling product.

ARCHIE MANAVIAN: Hello, Dragons! Today we're here to sweep you off your feet.

JOHN CULLEN: In Canada, if you have a business idea that you want to get off the ground, there's one place you can go for help. It's the Dragon's Den, Canada's version of Shark Tank.

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ARCHIE MANAVIAN: My name is Archie Manavian, and this is Stan Fong. We're both from Hardline Curling based out of Montreal.

JOHN CULLEN: Archie and his business partner Stan Fong enter the den wearing matching black and white shirts with the word ice pad emblazoned in blue across their chests. They want one of these dragons to invest in their groundbreaking new curling broom.

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STAN FONG: So maybe you're asking yourself two questions. Why are they sweeping a rock down the ice? And two, why is the skip yelling hurry hard? Well, the reason…

JOHN CULLEN: And it's clear that they're a bit nervous.

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ARCHIE MANAVIAN: The reason is because… the skip yells in order to give direction to the sweepers on that…

STAN FONG: There's two benefits to… Sorry. There's two benefits to sweeping.

JOHN CULLEN: This was a big moment. Getting on Dragon's Den is not easy. They had actually applied to be on the show more than once, but the first time, they lost out to something called Mr. Puffs.

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ARCHIE MANAVIAN: They make these Greek delicacies, basically. Really tasty.

JOHN CULLEN: This time, they had their shot. And Archie knew they had to get it right, and that meant they had to stand out.

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ARCHIE MANAVIAN: We thought it'd be a good idea to have some ice and demonstrate how easy it was to sweep with the ice pad.

People talking over each other: All right, somebody, sweep. You got to get right into it. We’re just testing it. There you go. Just testing it. God, that's good. Yeah, super fast. It moves fast. Can you see how light it is?

JOHN CULLEN: The dragons were curious, but none had made an offer yet. Then David Chilton piped up.

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DAVID CHILTON: I will do it, but I want a $10 royalty until I get my money back and a $5 after that.

ARLENE DICKINSON: I go in with David on that deal.

JOHN CULLEN: Two dragons want in. Arlene Dickinson and David Chilton. It seems like a good deal, but Archie isn't 100% sure.

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ARCHIE MANAVIAN: We like the deal. However, would you come down a little bit?

ARLENE DICKINSON: No. No.

DAVID CHILTON: No, I wouldn't do it because I think we're in and it’ll open a lot of doors for you guys.

ARLENE DICKINSON: Because we're going to build a market for you.

JOHN CULLEN: The tension track builds. The two partners confer in the corner. Finally, Archie and Stan make their decision.

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ARCHIE MANAVIAN: Very good. We'll take your deal then.

People talking over each other: Done. Thank you so much. Great. Nice meeting you. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot. Great. Thank you. Thanks again.

JOHN CULLEN: It shouldn't come as a shock that what you see on TV isn't always the way it goes in real life. After this show was taped, the two dragons went off to check things out. And after a round of due diligence, Arlene changed her mind.

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ARCHIE MANAVIAN: Arlene decided to drop out.

JOHN CULLEN: And they nearly lost Chilton too.

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DAVID CHILTON: I remember… the only thing I remember a little bit of was the red flag around the fact that he was still working. At the time of the pitch, if I'm not mistaken, he was still working for Canada Post.

JOHN CULLEN: He was, and his day was really long.

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ARCHIE MANAVIAN: I was working really early in the morning and I was done by 8:30 in the morning. I started at 4:30 and I was done by 8:30, and I came to Hardline all day. So it was very tiring.

DAVID CHILTON: And that worried me a little bit because in general, you want your entrepreneur to be full-time.

ARCHIE MANAVIAN: He was basically telling me that he didn't really want to do it with a guy that was working part-time, so I had to make a decision. And I said, listen, I'm going to make this work. You're going to have to trust me on it. I said, I've never asked anything from anybody, but I am asking this of you. If you've ever had a 1% good thought about something working out, let this be the one. And he said, let me think about it and I'll call you back. I think it took 27 seconds. He called me back and he said, let's do this. I was on my balcony. I raised both my arms up in the air and I said, that's great news.

JOHN CULLEN: Even though the guys at Hardline Broom had their infusion of Dragon Cash, they still had a big challenge ahead of them. In order to put the ice pad on the world stage, they needed to convince a curling star to use one. And lucky for them, I knew just the guy. This is Broomgate, the story of how a broom almost killed curling. I'm John Cullen.

JOHN CULLEN: In 2014, Nike had LeBron James, Adidas had Lionel Messi, Hardline had… me. I was one of the only competitive curlers using Hardline at the time, and my team was ranked 30th in the world. So obviously, they needed an actual star to legitimize their business, and they wanted it to be Mike McEwen.

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ANNOUNCER: Here in Grand Prairie, Mike McEwen is continuing exceptional play, finishing first and locking up a spot in the final.

JOHN CULLEN: Mike was the perfect curler to rep Hardline. He was known as a standup guy. Everyone in curling liked Mike. And at the time, Mike's team was number one in the world. So at a big curling tournament, Archie took his shot. He headed to a hotel where Mike was staying.

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ARCHIE MANAVIAN: I remember it was about 1:00 am when the hotel lobby deserted. There's two exits to the hotel, and our car is parked kind of like in the middle of both exits, right? So as I'm walking out, Mike McEwen comes right in front of me and I corner him. I said, Mike, you don't know me. I said, my name is Archie from Hardline. He goes, oh yeah, you know, I've heard a lot about you, blah blah blah. I said, listen, you gotta use our brooms, man. They're really good.

JOHN CULLEN: Getting cornered in a hotel lobby, it didn't win Mike over. So Archie turned to me. I'd been using Hardline brooms for a year at this point. I loved the brooms and I loved Archie. I saw no reason not to try to convince Mike to use them.

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ARCHIE MANAVIAN: John calls me up and he goes, guess who I just got off the phone with? And I said, who? He goes, well, Mike McEwen. And I said, get the hell out of here. I don't really remember how that conversation went. But I mean, you know, him putting in a good word, you know, I was really appreciative of any help he could provide for us. I mean, that's for sure.

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JOHN CULLEN: Hey, buddy.

MIKE MCEWEN: Hey. How’s it going?

JOHN CULLEN: Good. How are you?

MIKE MCEWEN: Good to see you.

JOHN CULLEN: Good to see you.

JOHN CULLEN: My producer, Kathleen, and I are in Winnipeg to interview Mike. And to be honest, I'm a little nervous to talk to him. He hasn't spoken on the record much about Broomgate, and he was hesitant to talk to me now. I've had two one hour phone calls with Mike in my life. The first was convincing him to use Hardline brooms, and the second was convincing him to do this podcast.

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MIKE MCEWEN: It was a hard switch. We almost didn't do it.

JOHN CULLEN: Mike admits going with Hardline was taking a chance. These brooms had only been on the market for a short time, and no one at Mike's level had used them in elite competition yet. If the ice pad was a dud, that would be a problem. But there was another motivator for Mike, money.

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KATHLEEN GOLDHAR: Are you a full time curler?

MIKE MCEWEN: Mostly full time. Yeah. I would say, yeah, I don't know what percentage, but mostly.

KATHLEEN GOLDHAR: But it pays all your bills. Like that's how you make your money. Or do you do something else?

MIKE MCEWEN: Does it pay all my bills?

[laughter]

JOHN CULLEN: Even Mike's best years would make other professional athletes shudder. The most Mike's team ever earned in one season was $172,000, or roughly 16% of the minimum salary of an NHL player. Oh, and that's 172,000 split between four guys. And it doesn't include the team's expenses. And because curling talent runs so deep in Canada, and there are so many teams for potential sponsors to support, unless you're at the top of the pile, you're just a part of the pile.

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MIKE MCEWEN: We didn't have help. We really didn't.

JOHN CULLEN: It's a risk for anyone to take the leap and decide to dedicate their lives to their sport. But it feels especially risky for curlers. For Mike, that risk included some major sacrifices.

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MIKE MCEWEN: I remember very clearly having to choose between, you know, a full-time job. But we had a good team and we had made the Canada Cup East at that time, and I couldn't get the time off. And I think that, you know, the event might have started like on a Wednesday or Thursday. And I think I handed in my resignation on like literally on the Monday. And we made the final too. So it seemed justified at the time.

JOHN CULLEN: It might have been justifiable in terms of the team, but it did not make things easy at home. Mike's wife, Dawn McEwen, is also a top curler. They met when Mike was billeted with her family in Ottawa for a bonspiel. As you might imagine, a house with two professional curlers trying to pursue their dreams made the family budget very, very tight.

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MIKE MCEWEN: Most teams in curling are not millionaires. Most are scrapping for anything they can get. So you imagine you're just trying to make ends meet, pay for your season, whatever, just break somewhere above even. And there's lots of teams like that still to this day. At the end of the day, you're hurting your family with how much time you're away and if you're not getting enough funding or winning enough or what have you to, you know, pay bills and things like that. So if you're not doing well and you're away that many days on the road, you got to start questioning yourself, why am I doing this?

JOHN CULLEN: Mike's team also failed to qualify for the Olympics that year. He was ready for a change. So after some soul searching, it felt to Mike like it just might be time to consider a new broom.

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MIKE MCEWEN: I wanted to switch. I wanted to take a chance and do it.

JOHN CULLEN: Mike made the decision. He was going to switch brooms. But remember, Mike is part of a team. If he's going to get them to switch brooms, he's got some convincing to do.

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MATT WOZNIAK: We were split as a team. Half of us wanted to do it, half of us didn't. I mean, I wasn't overly impressed, to be honest with you.

JOHN CULLEN: It's safe to say that Mike's team mate, Matt Wozniak, was on the side of didn't want to switch brooms.

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MIKE MCEWEN: Like I was probably the most leery out of the four of us as far as making a change.

JOHN CULLEN: At this point, Matt Wozniak and Mike had been playing together for almost a decade. Most teams last about four years, the gap between Olympics. Some don't even make it a full season.

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MATT WOZNIAK: We became friends, which helped, you know, outside of the rink. I mean, I was, you know, best man at his wedding. So yeah, we just connected off the ice. And on the ice, it seemed easy. I mean, I knew… he knew what he was going to get out of me. I knew what I was going to get out of him. And then it's just like, why change? Why? Why do we need a new broom?

JOHN CULLEN: Mike had a gut instinct that switching brooms was the right move, even if it was clear his team-mates didn't want to. So he rolled the dice and invited Archie to Winnipeg to win over his team in-person.

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ARCHIE MANAVIAN: I got a call. Can you guys fly out to Winnipeg? And we flew out the next day. And Mike, at that time, we met for steak, which I will say they made me pay for, and I wasn't too happy about that. But anyway, I still love you, Mikey.

JOHN CULLEN: Archie sat down with Mike and his three team mates in the red leather booths at Winnipeg's most iconic steakhouse, Ray and Jerry's.

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ARCHIE MANAVIAN: We spoke about the kind of team that we were looking for, a team with integrity, and they were basically saying that they were looking for the same thing out of a supplier.

JOHN CULLEN: I can just see Archie at a steakhouse giving the hard sell.

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ARCHIE MANAVIAN: So when you're using our competitors’ brooms, you're getting a lot more tired sweeping. Whereas these guys I believe were saving their energy because of the ease of the sweeping of the broom.

JOHN CULLEN: Maybe even poking a steak knife in the air. These are the lightest, easiest waterproof brooms you'll ever use in your life. I promise.

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FIRST SPEAKER: The meeting did not go well. Archie could be a little bit, matter of fact, a little rough around the edges. But, you know, he was just, you know, a touch, touch forward.

SECOND SPEAKER: I mean, Archie was quite aggressive with his pitch. He's just… at the time, he was aggressive. And that was probably why I was, you know, a little bit like why? Like this, you know, he's… I don't really like this guy right now, you know?

JOHN CULLEN: Yeah.

JOHN CULLEN: It didn't seem like Mike could get his whole team on board with Hardline. Maybe flying out to Winnipeg and paying for dinner for five at Ray and Jerry's was a waste of time and money. But then, somewhere between the New York strip loin with steamed spinach and a coconut cream pie, something changed. Archie started talking numbers.

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MIKE MCEWEN: We were a team that was not well funded. And they, you know, essentially came in with more funding than we had seen from a manufacturer curling broom company before.

JOHN CULLEN: Do you remember the initial deal, like the terms of the initial deal?

MIKE MCEWEN: No, I probably couldn't share them anyways.

[laughter]

JOHN CULLEN: Okay, fine.

JOHN CULLEN: When Mike and his team got the offer from Hardline, they liked what they saw.

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MIKE MCEWEN: They offered us a pretty lucrative deal. It was like, okay, this, they could end up being our, sort of our title sponsor, which at the time, and I even think to this day, would be unheard of from an equipment sponsor. Let's, you know, give it a go and take the cash and see what happens. So that's kind of how it started.

JOHN CULLEN: Archie also offered his team something different: a percentage of money for everything Hardline sold. Of course, being the first poster boy for a new company also means something else: you have to win. No one wants to use the broom of a loser. So Mike was ready to head into the 2014 15 season holding a broom that no top team had ever used before, that his team-mates didn't want to use, signing a deal with a company no one had even heard of two years prior, owned by a mailman. And Hardline was betting that Mike McEwan was going to be the team that would take their company to brand new heights and help them break into the well-established and very competitive curling broom market. It was a really good bet.

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ANNOUNCER: McEwan for the run back and the win. Gets it.

JOHN CULLEN: In 2014 15, Mike would go on to have one of the best curling seasons in history.

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ANNOUNCER: Here we are with the winner of the 2014 Grand Slam of Curling National Championship, Mike McEwen. Mike, how are you feeling, buddy?

MIKE MCEWEN: Pretty amazing. Pretty amazing.

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MIKE MCEWEN: Up to that date, that was definitely, on paper, one of the very best tour seasons that a team had ever put together.

JOHN CULLEN: Some would say it was the best tour season ever.

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ANNOUNCERS: Trying to get into that pocket. Just like that, and they get one, two, three.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: They were good in 2013. They were good in 2014. And then in 2015, they went crazy.

ANNOUNCERS: So go go go go go go! Underneath one shot.

FIRST UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: When Mike wins, I think it was eight or nine spiels. With the competition out there, that just doesn't happen.

SECOND UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It wasn't like it was tight games. They were really manhandling the guys

ANNOUNCER: Just won a cliff with a little. Like that. My goodness! One, two, three, four.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Wow, what a year Mike had had. I think they won like seven or eight events that season. And like you don't see that in our sport.

ANNOUNCER: Magic Mike! Magic Mike!

[cheers]

JOHN CULLEN: His season was ridiculous. They played in 12 events, and they made the finals in 11 of them. His overall record that season, 72 wins, 12 losses. A winning percentage of 86%. Simply put, curling had never seen a season like it. And all this winning, it was good for Hardline too. From the time Archie and Stand's episode of Dragon's Den hit the air and Mike's team started to win, Archie says sales of the ice pad went through the roof.

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ARCHIE MANAVIAN: It was a crazy time. It honestly was. I would say we had probably at least, I'm going to ballpark it here because I don't know the exact numbers, but we went probably 400% more.

KATHLEEN GOLDHAR: In a matter of weeks.

ARCHIE MANAVIAN: In a matter of weeks.

JOHN CULLEN: And as things went nuts at Hardline, it was time for Archie's whiz kid of a brother to leave Wall Street and join the Hardline team.

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HARACH MANAVIAN: I let go of the fame of New York.

ARCHIE MANAVIAN: The fame and the glitz and glamour of New York.

JOHN CULLEN: Together, Stan Fong and the Manavian brothers worked day and night to keep up with the exploding business.

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HARACH MANAVIAN: We have that DNA. Like our dad worked really, really hard to get his business going. So, you know, it's just in us.

JOHN CULLEN: But one fateful day, as Mike's winning streak continued and Hardline’s sales soared, this unstoppable team made a huge shot against the wrong guy.

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FIRST ANNOUNCER: Last rock six, then down by four, but looking to get right back into it.

SECOND ANNOUNCER: Well, it's either going to be 7-2 or 6-5. It’s gamer.

JOHN CULLEN: At the final of the Grand Slam of Curling’s Masters in 2014, with the rock in his right hand, Mike pushes off and carefully slides down the ice. Right there, Mike lets go, and the rock slides gracefully into the control of his two team-mates, sliding their way ahead of the rock with Hardline brooms in their hands.

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People: Oh no! Yup. Oh!

JOHN CULLEN: That yup, that's when Matt Wozniak and Denny Neufeld start to sweep. Their movements are quick and small. The rock glides towards the house at the other end of the ice.

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People: Yeah! Whoa, whoa! Yeah! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

JOHN CULLEN: Mike's team has the red rocks. Their opponents, their rocks are yellow. And as the red rock approaches the house, it does this incredible thing.

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People: Oh! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

ANNOUNCER: Here's the one, the angle. Comes in.

JOHN CULLEN: If you search Mike McEwen on YouTube, it's one of the first results, with the caption shot of the year. A lot of rocks are colliding. And when the dust settles, Mike has scored four to tie the game.

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UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Are you kidding me?

JOHN CULLEN: Mike jumps up. His team mates hug and high five. The crowd goes wild. In this moment, Mike can't stop smiling. He looks like a man who sees his future, and it's full of wins, medals, and maybe even a trip to the Olympics.

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ANNOUNCER: Don't go anywhere.

JOHN CULLEN: The camera moves from the exuberant teen McEwen and zooms in on their opponent. It's Brad Gushue, and his mood is 100% the opposite. From head to toe, the man is not pleased.

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ANNOUNCER: We have a game. 6-6. Wow!

JOHN CULLEN: And as the music wraps and we head to a commercial, the camera lands on Mike and Brad standing together at one end of the ice. Mike, as Skip's do, is trying to make small talk with Brad, but Brad doesn't say a word. There is no doubt about how he feels. He's pissed off. And as team McEwen is celebrating, Brad Gushue is thinking, how is Mike doing this and how can I stop him?

JOHN CULLEN: Next time on Broomgate.

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BRAD GUSHUE: It was frustrating. I couldn't figure out what they were doing. The thought crossed our mind where they were aware of this and they hid it. How could they not be aware of it?

JOHN CULLEN: Broomgate is a production of USG Audio and CBC, in association with Pacific Electric and Kelly & Kelly, hosted by me, John Cullen, and concept devised by John Cullen and Kelly & Kelly. Showrunner is Kathleen Goldhar. Executive producers are Josh Bloch from USG Audio, Mike Falbo, Ed Helms and Brett Harris from Pacific Electric, Chris Kelly, Lauren Berkovich and Pat Kelly from Kelly & Kelly, Chris Oke and Cesil Fernandes from CBC, and John Cullen. Assistant editor is Max Collins. Editor is Mitchell Stewart. Production support from Josh Lalongi at USG Audio. Veronica Simmons is our senior producer. Our theme song is by Chris Kelly. Tanya Springer is senior manager, and Arif Noorani is the director of CBC Podcasts.

JOHN CULLEN: Thanks for listening to Broomgate. If you want to hear the next episode right now, subscribe to our channel on Apple Podcasts. Just click on the link in the show description.

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Transcript: Broomgate, Episode 2

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