In 1989, Saskatoon hosted the Labatt’s Brier and one of the legacies of this Brier was a fund set aside to assist with attracting national and international events to Saskatoon. At this time it was also determined that curling needed to be promoted at the recreational level in order to grow the sport within the city.
Each curling club had traditionally promoted curling by advertising their leagues and holding club bonspiels. It was felt that working together could reduce duplication and enable the promotion of the sport to a larger audience.
At that time there were also three organizations that looked after various city-wide curling activities: The Saskatoon Ladies Bonspiel Association, who organized the annual Ladies Bonspiel; Region 13 Ladies Association who organized and coordinated all provincial play downs within Saskatoon; and The Saskatoon Men’s Curling Association who organized and coordinated the annual Men’s Bonspiel and all provincial play downs in Saskatoon. While these organizations promoted curling, they didn’t consult with each other and there was a duplication of effort.
Thus in l989, a committee was formed representing all three organizations and the six curling clubs in Saskatoon; the CN, Hub City, Granite, Prairieland Exhibition, Nutana and Sutherland. Their mandate was to review the possibility of amalgamating and provide direction on how this could be achieved.
On October 22, 1990, Curl Saskatoon was formed. Curl Saskatoon took over the responsibility for the Men’s and Ladies’ Bonspiels and all playdowns starting in the 1990-1991 curling season.
To fulfill their mandate “to promote curling throughout the City of Saskatoon” Curl Saskatoon developed a city-wide junior league, several promotional campaigns and the Inter-Club Challenge along with the Ken Rowley Award of the Game recognizing individual contributions to the game of curling.