The men’s and women’s provincial curling championships will be held on the same ice at the same time next year.

On Monday, CurlSask announced that Kindersley will play host to the 2025 SaskTel Tankard and the 2025 Viterra Scotties from Jan. 20 to 26, featuring the top men’s and women’s curling teams competing for their respective titles at the same time inside the West Central Events Arena.

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Previously, the championships took place at separate times and in most cases, in separate venues.

“We want our events in arenas,” said CurlSask executive director Steve Turner. “We’re trying to prepare our athletes for that next step … to put them in arena ice mimicking the situation they would see at a Scotties or at a Brier is priority No. 1.”

While the official draw schedule hasn’t been released, Turner said it will look similar to a Grand Slam of Curling event with men’s and women’s draws each day, which means there could be four draws per day, up from the traditional three.

While some playoff matchups could feature both men’s and women’s at the same time, Turner said he expects the championship matches to be held one at a time.

“It’s important for us to showcase both events so once we start to get down to that, we would probably stagger our semifinals and finals,” said Turner.

Estevan hosted both events in 2023 with the women wrapping up their tournament before the men began. Melville did the same in 2020.

“You look at Estevan, they basically were able to have that arena for three weekends,” said Turner. “Fortunately they were able to do that, but not everybody can.”

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Last month, Saskatoon played host to the men’s provincials where Mike McEwen and his squad won on their way to a silver medal at the 2024 Montana’s Brier in Regina.

In January, the women competed in Tisdale with Skylar Ackerman and her team coming out victorious on their way to a Scotties Tournament of Hearts appearance in Calgary.

Kindersley last hosted the Viterra Scotties in 2010 and the SaskTel Tankard in 2016.

Each of the championships will feature the top 12 curling teams from across the province. The top four Saskatchewan-based men’s and women’s teams on Curling Canada’s Canadian Team Ranking System will earn an automatic berth, as will the top four teams on the Saskatchewan Curling Tour who didn’t qualify through the CTRS. A last-chance qualifier event will determine the final four entries for each championship.

The winners from each provincial championship will then represent Saskatchewan on the national stage.

The 2025 Montana’s Brier will be held in Kelowna, B.C. with the winner earning the right to represent Canada at the 2025 World Men’s Curling Championship in Moose Jaw later that year.

Meanwhile, the 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts will be held in Thunder Bay, Ont. With the winner going on to represent Canada at the women’s world championship in Korea.

tshire@postmedia.com

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