Etobicoke is Dramatically Under Serviced in Meeting the Demand for Curling
The fundamental issue today is that the west end of Toronto is dramatically under serviced in meeting the demand for curling with only two facilities west of Avenue Road compared to eight facilities east of Avenue Road. One of the two facilities in west Toronto, St. Georges Golf & Country Club, announced this summer that it is closing its curling program in April, 2020 leaving only one facility going forward. This follows on the heels of a previous west end location, Weston Golf & Country Club, closing its curling facility in the fall of 2018. The closures displace approximately one thousand curlers. The reason for the closures is not a lack of demand for curling but rather a shift in golf club direction to make St. Georges (and Weston) golf-centric. These major blows leave no curling facilities in Etobicoke as of April and only one oversubscribed facility for all of west Toronto.
Curling participation in west Toronto is half that in the rest of Toronto due to lack of local facilities. Already potential curlers are being turned away from the clubs that are open. The Toronto Sports and Social Club have lamented that they cannot find ice time for their 20,000 members who wish to curl on a regular basis. There are no City owned curling facilities west of Yonge Street. There are three City owned curling facilities east of Yonge Street and they are extremely successful and are turning away curlers.
Check out our vision of how to resolve these issues and "How Can You Help?".