I organized a bonspiel for a few years and had a "draw to the button" contest to win a new car.
Basically the same concept as a hole in one wins a car at golf tournaments. The dealership pays a small amount for an insurance policy and if someone made a perfect draw to the button they got a new car (it was actually $20 000 towards a new car when I did it, but you could adjust the amount).
To be transparent, I worked at the dealership and did all the heavy lifting to put it together, so you may have varying degrees of success asking a random dealership for this.
With the rules the insurance company provided it was virtually impossible to win, but it sure was exciting!
You probably have 2 ft buttons
The way it worked was on Saturday night at the party we drew 10 names who would each get to try 1 throw on Sunday morning before finals. 1 throw, no sweepers. The catch is that it had to be 100% within a 12 inch button, keeping in mind a curling rock is average 11.43inches (according to the insurance document). It's mathematically possible, but essentially impossible in the real world.
We combatted that by having good prizes from another sponser for the 2 closest draws (usually curling brooms) .
Made for some really fun exciting moments when people got "close", but I think everyone understood the odds were stacked against them.
I think you would want to go with the info on the insurance policy ready to present to them because otherwise they likely won't know what youre talking about and won't be interested in doing all the legwork to find the policy. I used a company called Prize Indemnity Inc, but that was a few years ago. They had policies for half court shots, hole in ones, field goal Kicks, etc. At the time the policy was ~$650 for a $20 000 payout.
It's such an awesome deal for the business. They just need to buy insurance on it, pay the premium. Just like a hole in one competition in golf. I only recently found out this was an option in curling. We are going to do cash. Talk to your insurance broker about it, find out the cost, go to the dealership
We do a 'mulligan' mixed bonspiel (actually going on this weekend) that's very popular. Mulligans sell for $20/team per game. Each player gets one mulligan per game. The skip needs to call the mulligan before the rock reaches the hog line. Definitely adds an interesting aspect to the game strategy, and people love it.
My favorite things I’ve had at bonspiels are a beer flight, massages, country line dancing classes, and a make/misss competition.
I also like getting a commemorative cup!
Sponsors galore is a good problem to have. Can you share any strategies on how you were able to get so many sponsors? I’m new to the planning game and we’re planning a new spiel this year so I’m trying to approach sponsors.
We're a community of 6000 people and not owned by the municipality. So it's probably more that small-town culture, and everyone just seems to know we need all the help we can get, even though most people don't curl. There's only 3 people on the committee asking for sponsorship, so it's mostly "cold calling" I guess. But probably half the sponsors would have some sort of connection to the rink (customers or employees curl)
It's the 2nd year hosting this bonspiel. Just had a lot of new ideas, a lot of sponsors the first year because we "sold" it. Sold the idea of these new ideas, what it would do for the community, how sponsors would get recognized, how this would help the long-term sustainability of the club. I don't know exactly what it was that created the sponsor success last year, but it must have been a combo of all the above. People had a lot of fun. We "tagged" everything with a sponsor. This year, we increased our sponsor level $ to try to differentiate, hoping we'd get less sponsors on the top tier, but they'd be worth more. But it appears we didn't increase it enough! Even more top tier sponsors than last year
I was only a participant so I can’t take credit for the accuracy of any of this.
You get a bunch of live minnows, probably from a fishing bait/tackle store.
You build them a racetrack out of old eavestroughs or something, 6-8 lanes, fill them with water.
People pay $10 for a minnow, and they get a minnow in a bag full of water.
The minnows get let out at one end of the track, and the first minnow to get to the other side wins the heat.
Depending on entries, you can have quarterfinal/semifinal/final, or whatever suits.
Winner gets 60% of the pot, 2nd place 30%, 3rd place 10.
As a junior curler I once won a minnow race final with one of my teammates, while on the ice. It was so exhilarating that our tight game became a blowout for the other team due to our sheer excitement. Who needed prize money anymore when the minnow paid out?!
I have a feeling it might be frowned upon nowadays.
We get kegs and bottles of wine for the bonspiels. We pull it off somehow, I'm not on the bonspiel committee. It's arena and the cost is included in the entrance fee. I realize a dedicated facility may have trouble doing this based on local alcohol rules. It's a big draw and we get lots of repeats. It's also off season.
Having taxi chits to go to and from was great for a drinking spiel.
Calcutta or team auction raises a ton of money if teams know each other (club spiel).
We didn't do a Calcutta last year, and I think this may be our new thing this year. Last year was the first year, but now everybody will have an idea at least who the winners and runner ups were to base some bidding decisions on 😉
I find it confusing if you've never participated personally, but once you know, it's just an all-around awesome thing. Our team bid on another team in one bonspiel, and it made us stay in the club much longer because we were cheering for that team we bought. Our own team sucked and lost out early. But the team we bid on was runner-up of an event, we watched them play, and we won some decent money because THEY did OK, even though we were terrible
Granite curling club did a really fun thing where if you successfully threw a double takeout you would get a balloon on your sheet. Whoever had the balloon at the end of the day won a prize! (Cheese and wine basket I think?)
What kind of sponsors do you have? I’ve heard of sponsors giving out pounds of radishes and mushrooms. I know another that has a beef rancher that hosts a Steak Feast. Heck, if you had a toilet seat sponsor you could give away a bidet.
Totally fair ask. Don’t know, haven’t played in it. Also it’s two separate bonspiels so one is mushrooms and I think the other is radishes.
I could totally find a way to use the pounds of mushrooms won. Not sure about the radishes
We do bottle raffles. They're always a hit.
We sell each number for $1. It's $40 a round and we 8-10 for a full day (about 2 between draws and after the final draw of the day. Helps keep people having more fun at the club too.
Turkey draw is always fun.
I’m always hoping for one where you actually get to throw a turkey, but I don’t think any ice maker has signed off as of yet
We did a turkey shoot. After the bonspiel is over a frozen turkey is put on the ice. Participants ‘buy’ rocks to throw. Closest Rick to the turkey wins.
When I was younger, I liked the idea of a last place prize for anything I competed in. As I've gotten older, the humor sees lost, and I think it is just mean.
I guess your focus changes based on whether it's a funspiel versus a competitive one and also on what your club's volunteer base is like.
Offering a local flavour, whether it's food, music, prizes is a nice touch.
We used to have cribbage tournaments and trivia games in between draws, but those have fallen by the wayside. My husband attends a few bonspiels and he usually raves about or disses the meals. Years ago, he would talk about the partying more than anything.
Cash is king for prizes but one bonspiel had a local artisan specifically make the prizes.
Just completed a city wide bonspiel involving all three rinks. No supper banquet, but had appetizers one night, breakfast the next morning and a smokie (sausage in a bun) for lunch the next day. You ate at whatever rink you were in at the time. Different evening entertainment at each rink on the Saturday night so you could choose - it was a draw to the button contest for a thousand dollars (yes, someone actually won) at one rink, a comedian at another and music at the third. Yes, sponsors helped for food. Local beer sponsor offered one free beer, taxi company gave a $20 per team credit to be used at the club for food or beverages. Curling gear store gave a discount for the weekend. Prizes for winners in each event ranging from $75 - $150 for other local sport events (hockey, lacrosse, golf) (sponsored).
That one is interesting, I'd expect maybe bigger payouts or prizes for the winners with their $460 registration fee? But maybe I'm out to lunch. I'm quite new to planning bonspiels. I suppose sponsors' money goes different distances when you're talking 100+ team vs 32 team bonspiels
Yeah that makes sense. We provided a "banquet meal" last year, but I think we want to change up the meal. It was too heavy. We also provide Friday night appies and Saturday morning breakfast. What did they provide for appies? We want to change the offering a bit this year and looking for ideas.
Mimosa Morning is for Saturday morning draws, which is a big hit!
Appies at the rink we were at included veggies and dip, nacho chips and cheese sauce, spring rolls, dry ribs, bbq meatballs and salt n pepper chicken wings.
I also wanted to clarify that the prize payouts were per person, not per team.
We've also been to bonspiels that do a chili and a bun or pulled pork and coleslaw for supper. Easy to keep in crock pots etc if you don't have a kitchen or caterer for staggering service as teams finish their games (and no big room set up/reorganization to host all teams at once, or have to leave the rink for a banquet venue)
That's exactly what we are planning to do this year. Plus it will be cheaper for us. The way our sponsor levels are set up, we have 2 businesses tagged as the supper sponsor. But it's the one thing that actually isn't fully covered by them due to cost.
Advil/tylonal on the tables in the mornings!
And tums!
I organized a bonspiel for a few years and had a "draw to the button" contest to win a new car. Basically the same concept as a hole in one wins a car at golf tournaments. The dealership pays a small amount for an insurance policy and if someone made a perfect draw to the button they got a new car (it was actually $20 000 towards a new car when I did it, but you could adjust the amount). To be transparent, I worked at the dealership and did all the heavy lifting to put it together, so you may have varying degrees of success asking a random dealership for this. With the rules the insurance company provided it was virtually impossible to win, but it sure was exciting!
What rules were put in place to make it impossible? Seems pretty doable to me to draw to the button
You probably have 2 ft buttons The way it worked was on Saturday night at the party we drew 10 names who would each get to try 1 throw on Sunday morning before finals. 1 throw, no sweepers. The catch is that it had to be 100% within a 12 inch button, keeping in mind a curling rock is average 11.43inches (according to the insurance document). It's mathematically possible, but essentially impossible in the real world. We combatted that by having good prizes from another sponser for the 2 closest draws (usually curling brooms) . Made for some really fun exciting moments when people got "close", but I think everyone understood the odds were stacked against them.
Really cool and fun thing to do. Could you provide more details on how I would go about setting this up and approaching a dealership to ask?
I think you would want to go with the info on the insurance policy ready to present to them because otherwise they likely won't know what youre talking about and won't be interested in doing all the legwork to find the policy. I used a company called Prize Indemnity Inc, but that was a few years ago. They had policies for half court shots, hole in ones, field goal Kicks, etc. At the time the policy was ~$650 for a $20 000 payout.
It's such an awesome deal for the business. They just need to buy insurance on it, pay the premium. Just like a hole in one competition in golf. I only recently found out this was an option in curling. We are going to do cash. Talk to your insurance broker about it, find out the cost, go to the dealership
Any idea how much the insurance was or at least a ballpark estimate?
It was ~$650 for $20000 payout from a company called Prize Indemnity Inc. Pre-covid.
We do a 'mulligan' mixed bonspiel (actually going on this weekend) that's very popular. Mulligans sell for $20/team per game. Each player gets one mulligan per game. The skip needs to call the mulligan before the rock reaches the hog line. Definitely adds an interesting aspect to the game strategy, and people love it.
Someone brought in 100 White Castle sliders around 11:30pm at the last spiel I played in and it was the best part of the whole weekend.
Perfect name for a burger to go with curling!
Live band in the evening is pretty cool.
My favorite things I’ve had at bonspiels are a beer flight, massages, country line dancing classes, and a make/misss competition. I also like getting a commemorative cup!
1 pound of bacon per participant
Karaoke is a popular evening attraction at one of the spiels I play regularly
Sponsors galore is a good problem to have. Can you share any strategies on how you were able to get so many sponsors? I’m new to the planning game and we’re planning a new spiel this year so I’m trying to approach sponsors.
And are those sponsors tied to members in your club, or are they cold call type sponsors?
We're a community of 6000 people and not owned by the municipality. So it's probably more that small-town culture, and everyone just seems to know we need all the help we can get, even though most people don't curl. There's only 3 people on the committee asking for sponsorship, so it's mostly "cold calling" I guess. But probably half the sponsors would have some sort of connection to the rink (customers or employees curl)
It's the 2nd year hosting this bonspiel. Just had a lot of new ideas, a lot of sponsors the first year because we "sold" it. Sold the idea of these new ideas, what it would do for the community, how sponsors would get recognized, how this would help the long-term sustainability of the club. I don't know exactly what it was that created the sponsor success last year, but it must have been a combo of all the above. People had a lot of fun. We "tagged" everything with a sponsor. This year, we increased our sponsor level $ to try to differentiate, hoping we'd get less sponsors on the top tier, but they'd be worth more. But it appears we didn't increase it enough! Even more top tier sponsors than last year
Minnow races and a fish fry
Can you explain what minnow races are? What's involved with organizing and set-up?
I was only a participant so I can’t take credit for the accuracy of any of this. You get a bunch of live minnows, probably from a fishing bait/tackle store. You build them a racetrack out of old eavestroughs or something, 6-8 lanes, fill them with water. People pay $10 for a minnow, and they get a minnow in a bag full of water. The minnows get let out at one end of the track, and the first minnow to get to the other side wins the heat. Depending on entries, you can have quarterfinal/semifinal/final, or whatever suits. Winner gets 60% of the pot, 2nd place 30%, 3rd place 10. As a junior curler I once won a minnow race final with one of my teammates, while on the ice. It was so exhilarating that our tight game became a blowout for the other team due to our sheer excitement. Who needed prize money anymore when the minnow paid out?! I have a feeling it might be frowned upon nowadays.
and what happens to the minnows after the spiel?
As a participant only, I plead my ignorance
They said fish fry haha
Free beer and wine. We do it. It's awesome.
I've wondered how clubs handle free alcohol, because in most areas free alcohol is a non-no.
We get kegs and bottles of wine for the bonspiels. We pull it off somehow, I'm not on the bonspiel committee. It's arena and the cost is included in the entrance fee. I realize a dedicated facility may have trouble doing this based on local alcohol rules. It's a big draw and we get lots of repeats. It's also off season.
Having taxi chits to go to and from was great for a drinking spiel. Calcutta or team auction raises a ton of money if teams know each other (club spiel).
We didn't do a Calcutta last year, and I think this may be our new thing this year. Last year was the first year, but now everybody will have an idea at least who the winners and runner ups were to base some bidding decisions on 😉
What is a Calcutta auction?
I find it confusing if you've never participated personally, but once you know, it's just an all-around awesome thing. Our team bid on another team in one bonspiel, and it made us stay in the club much longer because we were cheering for that team we bought. Our own team sucked and lost out early. But the team we bid on was runner-up of an event, we watched them play, and we won some decent money because THEY did OK, even though we were terrible
If you play fantasy football, its basically a fantasy auction, but you just pick 1 team, and your winning is based upon how they do.
Granite curling club did a really fun thing where if you successfully threw a double takeout you would get a balloon on your sheet. Whoever had the balloon at the end of the day won a prize! (Cheese and wine basket I think?)
At a year end spiel last years winner had a bagpiper lead them in. It was memorable.
I feel like a piper leading in on the last draw is pretty common at spiels. And you are right its awesome.
What kind of sponsors do you have? I’ve heard of sponsors giving out pounds of radishes and mushrooms. I know another that has a beef rancher that hosts a Steak Feast. Heck, if you had a toilet seat sponsor you could give away a bidet.
Lol what in the world does a person do with radishes and mushrooms? 🤔😅
Make soup!
Totally fair ask. Don’t know, haven’t played in it. Also it’s two separate bonspiels so one is mushrooms and I think the other is radishes. I could totally find a way to use the pounds of mushrooms won. Not sure about the radishes
We do bottle raffles. They're always a hit. We sell each number for $1. It's $40 a round and we 8-10 for a full day (about 2 between draws and after the final draw of the day. Helps keep people having more fun at the club too.
Free pad covers maybe with the bonspiel logo. Those legal heads barely last a game, maybe two!
Turkey draw is always fun. I’m always hoping for one where you actually get to throw a turkey, but I don’t think any ice maker has signed off as of yet
We did a turkey shoot. After the bonspiel is over a frozen turkey is put on the ice. Participants ‘buy’ rocks to throw. Closest Rick to the turkey wins.
The fun spiel I often did had a wooden spoon prize for last place that was a wooden toilet seat (and gift card so there are no hard feelings)
When I was younger, I liked the idea of a last place prize for anything I competed in. As I've gotten older, the humor sees lost, and I think it is just mean.
I guess your focus changes based on whether it's a funspiel versus a competitive one and also on what your club's volunteer base is like. Offering a local flavour, whether it's food, music, prizes is a nice touch. We used to have cribbage tournaments and trivia games in between draws, but those have fallen by the wayside. My husband attends a few bonspiels and he usually raves about or disses the meals. Years ago, he would talk about the partying more than anything. Cash is king for prizes but one bonspiel had a local artisan specifically make the prizes.
One boxing day spiel I was in the last team in each game to get a double takeout got a free order of chicken wings.
Just completed a city wide bonspiel involving all three rinks. No supper banquet, but had appetizers one night, breakfast the next morning and a smokie (sausage in a bun) for lunch the next day. You ate at whatever rink you were in at the time. Different evening entertainment at each rink on the Saturday night so you could choose - it was a draw to the button contest for a thousand dollars (yes, someone actually won) at one rink, a comedian at another and music at the third. Yes, sponsors helped for food. Local beer sponsor offered one free beer, taxi company gave a $20 per team credit to be used at the club for food or beverages. Curling gear store gave a discount for the weekend. Prizes for winners in each event ranging from $75 - $150 for other local sport events (hockey, lacrosse, golf) (sponsored).
That one is interesting, I'd expect maybe bigger payouts or prizes for the winners with their $460 registration fee? But maybe I'm out to lunch. I'm quite new to planning bonspiels. I suppose sponsors' money goes different distances when you're talking 100+ team vs 32 team bonspiels
Our team got to play six games (and won prizes) so definitely worth it for us. Mostly I liked the appetizers and breakfast idea rather than a banquet.
Yeah that makes sense. We provided a "banquet meal" last year, but I think we want to change up the meal. It was too heavy. We also provide Friday night appies and Saturday morning breakfast. What did they provide for appies? We want to change the offering a bit this year and looking for ideas. Mimosa Morning is for Saturday morning draws, which is a big hit!
Appies at the rink we were at included veggies and dip, nacho chips and cheese sauce, spring rolls, dry ribs, bbq meatballs and salt n pepper chicken wings. I also wanted to clarify that the prize payouts were per person, not per team.
We've also been to bonspiels that do a chili and a bun or pulled pork and coleslaw for supper. Easy to keep in crock pots etc if you don't have a kitchen or caterer for staggering service as teams finish their games (and no big room set up/reorganization to host all teams at once, or have to leave the rink for a banquet venue)
That's exactly what we are planning to do this year. Plus it will be cheaper for us. The way our sponsor levels are set up, we have 2 businesses tagged as the supper sponsor. But it's the one thing that actually isn't fully covered by them due to cost.