In an effort to revitalize its downtown, Chaska is banking on what might be called tourism with a twist — or at least a curl.
Officials are proposing the metro area's fourth curling center, confident there's enough interest in the medieval Scottish game that the riverside city once famous for its bricks might instead become known for sliding stones.
"It's a great opportunity to bring people downtown," said Tom Redman, director of parks and recreation.
Indeed, the metro area seems to be seeing something of a curling wave these days. The St. Paul Curling Club, which was born as an organization in 1885 and has been housed in a barnlike building on Selby Avenue since 1912, is going strong, with 1,200 members. And the last two years have seen two more metro clubs open — the Four Seasons Curling Club in Blaine, and the Frogtown Curling Club in St. Paul's Central neighborhood.
"We shot for 600 members at the end of our second year, and we're already there after 18 months," said John Benton, director of curling operations at Four Seasons Curling Club, which, as its name suggests, is the only year-round curling operation in town. A tournament there this weekend, known as a bonspiel, is expected to draw 48 teams of curlers. The Frogtown club has 300 members.
Curling always gets a boost in an Olympic year, people in the curling community say.
"It's got an everyman appeal," Benton said. "People watch it on TV and say, 'I can do that.' They're not going to say that with luge, or ski jumping."
Curling goes west
Chaska officials are counting on steadily rising enthusiasm. They've already selected an architect and construction firm for a combination curling center and bar-restaurant on former commercial property at the intersection of Hwy. 41 and County Road 61.