Rock League

In this episode of "A Pane In The Glass Podcast" we take a cursory look at something new in the sport of curling, "Rock League". Some, if not most of the listeners to the podcast have hear about Rock League which will launch soon in Toronto. Here's what I've learned to date (plus a surprise ending to the episode I think you will enjoy)!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Welcome to another episode of a Paint in the Glass podcast. This is your host, Bill Shearhart, Chartered Professional Coach with Coaches of Canada, once again coming to you from my home in Grand Bend, Ontario, on the ancestral land of the Kettle and Stony Point First Nations. If my voice sounds a little different today, well, I'm on the tail end of a cold. The topic today is Rock League. Those who have followed Curling, especially on television, you will have heard the term Rock League. Well, in uh about a week, you will be able to see Rock League. The purpose of this episode of a Pain in the Glad podcast is to bring you up to speed on the league, how it was formed, what it's going to look like, and a little bit about its rules. Well, how did it all start? In April of 2024, the Grand Slam of Curling, as most of you know, a series of curling bond spills that was mainly held in Canada was announced to be bought by a consortium known as the Curling Group. The group included curlers Jennifer Jones and John Morris, alongside former American football players Turn Curlers Jared Allen and Mark Bolger. On April 24, a year later of 2025, the Curling Group announced a professional curling league to be known as Rock League, which would begin play in April 2026 and hold events in Canada, the United States, and Europe. The league would initially consist of six globally franchised teams, with each team having five men and five women. The inaugural season would consist of six weeks of bond spiels in multiple formats. Bruce Mowat, one of the six team captains, announced that same day, likened the potential impact that Rock League would have on the momentum of the sport, which usually only sees a surge of interest during the Winter Olympics, to how Grand Slam track was meant to increase momentum in track and field after the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Curling legends John Morris and Jennifer Jones were also announced as competition advisors. The six teams announced with the founding of Rock League are franchises that initially are owned by the curling group itself. Each team consists of ten curlers, five of whom are male and five that are female. For the inaugural season of 2026, each of the six teams will be regionally focused. Two teams each will represent Canada and Europe, with the United States and the wider Asia Pacific region each having a team. Each team also announced a team captain on the same day. And here are those captains Rachel Holman, Brad Jacobs, Bruce Mowit, Alina Petz, Chanama Yoshida, and Corey Dropkin. And here are the actual teams. Starting with Alpine Curling Club Europe, and the general manager is Eve Muirhead. And they consist of from Switzerland, Alina Patz and Selena Gaffner, from Canada, Emma Miskew, from Sweden, Sophia Scharbach and Elmita Deval. The men from Italy, Joel Raturnez, from Sweden, Oscar Erickson, from Switzerland Sven Michel, from Scotland, Henry McMillan Jr. And from Germany, Mark Muskowitz. The Frontier Curling Club USA. The general manager, Chris Plies. The women on that team from Italy, Stefania Constantini, from the United States, Tabitha Peterson and Taylor Hansen Hyde. From Canada, Sarah Wilkes. And from the US, Cory Tees. The men, while we mentioned Cory Dropkin as the captain, from Scotland, Grant Hardy, from the United States, Danny Casper, John Schuster, and Colin Hoffman. Maple United from Canada, the general manager, Glenn Howard. And Rachel Holman was the captain, as we said, from Canada, from Switzerland, Zinnia Schwaller, from Sweden, Maria Larsen. From Canada, Carly Burgess and Jocelyn Peterman. The males on team Maple United from Scotland, Ross White, from Canada, Colton Flash, Tanner Horgan, Brett Gallant, and Mike McEwen. Northern United, a European team. General Manager Christopher Sva. The women on the team from Sweden, Isabella Rana, Sarah McManus, from Scotland, Jennifer Dodds, from Italy, Julia Zardini Lacadelli, and Norway Christian Skaslin. The males on Team Northern United, again the captain Bruce Moet from Scotland, along with Robin Brydent, from Sweden, Rasmus Rana, from Norway, Martin Sasker, and from Switzerland, Yannick Schwaller. SHIELD Curling Club from Canada. The general manager Carter Rycroft. The women on the team from Canada, Carrie Einerson, and Tracy Fleury. From Sweden, Agnes Knockenauer, from Switzerland, Carol Howald, and from Canada, Marley Powers. The men on the team, Brad Jacobs, the captain, along with Jacob Horgan and Dan Marsh, and from Italy, Amos Masaner, and from Switzerland, Benoit Schwartz, Van Burkel. The Typhoon Curling Club, Asia Pacific region, the general manager, JD Lind. The females Jinami Yoshida, Captain from Sweden, Anna Hasselberg, from Korea, Minji Kim, and Yin Sol from Japan, Tori Koana. And the men on Team Typhoon plus Adeen from Sweden, Tayoshi Yamaguchi from Japan, from Scotland, Bobby Lamy, from China, Bob Dixon, and from Australia, Anton Hood. Now let's have a look at the schedule that the Rock League is going to follow. The 2026 season will be held April 6th to the 12th. Well, that's next week, at the Matamine Athletics Center in Toronto and will feature men's, women's, mixed team, and mixed doubles events. Following around Robin's schedule, the four best teams will qualify for a playoff. The 2027 season will be spread out over four weeks in January and February of that year, with a playoff to be held April 8th to 18 at a location still to be announced. The regular season will be held January 7th to the 10th at Temple Gardens Center in Mooshaw, Saskatchewan, January 14 to 17 at Scotia Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia, January 28 to 31 at the Adirondack Bank Center in Utica, New York, and February 4 to 7 at TD Place in Ottawa. To help us, I was able to secure a sound bite. You will hear the voice of Joanne Courtney of the TSN broadcast crew who will walk us through what the first iteration of Rock League is going to look like. Joanne, take it away.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Okay, let's talk about the format now. Um, from Monday to Friday, each franchise will play against the other franchise. It's essentially a round robin. So each draw, you will have one franchise versus the other. There will be men's fours, women's fours, and mixed doubles. So all 10 players from each franchise will be on the ice. To win the match, you have to win two out of three of the games. That is how the franchise will get one point. Um, there's also a bonus point five of a point available if the franchise sweeps the entire thing. So gets three out of three of those wins. On Saturday, it will be a mixed fours um matchup. So only two he's simply there with two athletes sitting on the bench for this one. But substitutions are allowed. They can come at the end of the end. A player that's playing over here cannot go over into here. They have to go to the bench first before they can come into the game. The missed forest games are worth one point each. You don't have to win both of them for the franchise. So really big movie day on Saturday. But to determine the matchups for the missed forest games on that Saturday, it will be based on the seating after the Eround Robin is completed. Remembering that the tiebreakers will be broken, uh, determined by points for in these matches that we see on the ice. The Sunday Championship. This is going to go back to this format where it's men's, women's, and mixed doubles, and you need to win two out of the three games to move on. Uh, the top four franchises after a round robin is completed will move on.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Okay, thanks, Joanne, for that rundown on what the first iteration of Rock League is going to look like. So here's uh the Rock League rule set uh as we understand it right now. So here we go. The game link will be shortened to keep games in a two-hour broadcast window. This means that the men's and women's games will be shortened to seven ends, mixed doubles will stay eight ends. So men's and women's games will be seven, mixed doubles will be eight ends. And that's the way franchises will compete against one another in the round robin portion of the event. Thinking time will also be reduced. The men's and women's teams will only be given 21 minutes on their clock, the mixed doubles will have 23 minutes. So men's and women's 21 minutes, mixed doubles, 23 minutes. Teams will have three 60 second timeouts per game. Waiting on confirmation on this is three per sheet or three combined. So at the time of this publication, we're not sure about that. The general managers, also known as the coaches, will not be confined to a bench behind the scoreboard. They'll be roaming around up and down between sheets, between games. However, they are not allowed to step onto the ice surface. The no-tick rule, which has been implemented in other events, will still be used in Rock League, but it will be expanded. The no-tick rule will be applied to all rocks in the free guard zone. If a guard is moved, the non-offending team has choice on whether to leave the rocks as is or replace the moved guards. The no-tick rule will also be in place in mixed doubles games, so it's not just on the center line. In the last end of a game on any sheet, scoring rocks covering the pin will be worth two points, not one. And lastly, there will be no games conceded, no X's on the scoreboards in Rock League. Total points scored is used as a tiebreaker in the standings. Therefore, teams will play all ends, and teams running up scores is in play. Rock League. Different for sure, sounds exciting. I'm gonna watch, and just to remind you, I have no connection with Rock League. This is not a paid endorsement in any way, but I certainly will be watching. I think it's going to be fun and interesting because it really will be the first time that these athletes, as individuals, even though they're playing on franchises, will be playing as a professional, not with their regular teammates, which I think is going to be a very interesting twist. Now, my voice has held up at least enough to finish, so thanks for bearing with me on that. I'm going to play you out uh this week with uh two people I think you know, Kermit the Frog and Steve Martin, who happen to have something in common. They both play the banjo, and they're going to take us out this week with dueling banjos. So until next time, my friends, stay safe wherever you are, and don't forget that great North American philosopher Charlie Brown, don't focus too much on things that make you sad because there are so many things that can make you happy. Stephen Kermy, take it away.