By Nathan Kanter

Weekend passes now available for Canadian Meridian Open

Nov 2, 2016 | 2:10 PM

With top athletes coming to the Battlefords this January for the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling, Canadian Meridian Open, tickets are going fast.

Organizers have sold almost 50 per cent of the full, six-day event off of early bird prices alone. Until this past Monday, only full event passes were available at an early bird price, but now weekend passes are available as well.

“If people have to work during the week and they’re only able to attend on the weekend, they can now get those passes,” executive director of Destination Battlefords and newly acclaimed North Battleford Mayor Ryan Bater said on Wednesday. “So far ticket sales are exceeding our expectations and we’re very happy with the results.”

The weekend passes are $140.14, which gets you seven draws: one on Friday night, four draws on Saturday and then the two championship draws on Sunday. Included in the fee are taxes, so the average comes out to roughly $20 per draw.

Full event passes are still on sale, just not for the early bird price. It’s now $279.12, which gets you all 19 draws, beginning on January 3. On average, the full event pass works out to just under $15 per draw.

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At the moment, it is unclear which teams have qualified for the tournament, as the rankings used to determine that are as of Dec. 5. But it will be the top 16 men’s team and the top 16 women’s teams in the rankings who descend on the Civic Centre.

“The best teams want to be here so if you can think of a name in curling that you want to see, likely they are going to be at the Civic Centre playing in January,” Bater said. “We will see participants from all over the world – we expect to see some teams from Switzerland, Scotland, from Sweden and of course from all parts of Canada.”

Bater said that based on how sales have gone for full event passes, he expects weekend passes to sell out by the end of the month.

“I predict that we will be 100 per cent sold out of weekend passes by the end of November, so it’s really imperative if people have been wanting to get passes just for the weekend – they should do so right away,” he said. “There is no advantage to waiting.”

You also get to pick your seats, no matter how you buy your tickets.

Tickets for the Canadian Meridian Open can be bought online and purchased over the phone or in person at the Battlefords North Stars office.

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11