It's Time To Reorganize International Curling

The recent results at the Women's World Curling Championship may have been the best news for the development of international curling. 

Not only was the traditional power, Canada, out of the medals, but the tournament was unprecedentedly won by China.

Forget about the disastrous attendance in South Korea, a country that is only starting to develop the sport, curling is quietly growing throughout the world. 

It is one of the only sports to have a true world championship every year, involving the best teams from around the world, in both the men's and women's events.

However, now it's time for some long-term reorganization to take place to reflect and consolidate the tremendous growth that has occurred.

Currently, the World Curling Federation has 44 members.  The tournament, like Canada's National Brier Championship, has only 12 participants, but there are far more countries with teams now.

Actually, there isn't too much to reorganize except tournament participation and format. 

I would make the event a two venue one now, with two divisions of 24 teams.  The teams would be divided into two divisions that would play the usual round-robin formula. 

The playoff format would be changed, perhaps involving the top four teams from each division playing cross-over elimination games among each other to determine the champion.

Exact details would have to be worked out, but I think this is a good long term format that reflects the growth that curling has undergone.  It gets more countries into the tournament and that will help long-term international development.