Rock League walks back travel plans for pro curling startup, won't go overseas

The Curling Group is walking back some of its initial travel plans for the professional Rock League that's set to debut this spring.

TCG, which also owns the Grand Slam of Curling circuit, has decided it will not hold events in Europe as originally planned when its six-week debut season begins in April.

"We're going to keep it in North America this year," said Nic Sulsky, chief executive officer of The Curling Group.

The multi-format competition will feature six global franchises. Ottawa's Rachel Homan is captain of Canada 1 and Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is captain of Canada 2.

When The Curling Group launched plans for Rock League last April, it planned to hold events in Canada, the United States and Europe. Sulsky said venue availability was an issue for the planned European stops.

"I've been very vocal and very aggressive around how big we want to grow the sport and how we want to take the sport all over the world," he said in a recent interview from Stateline, Nev. "But the reality is logistics — the boring stuff — the logistics sometimes take a little bit more time."

The Curling Group is planning to roll out Rock League details for the first two seasons in mid-December, including locations, team names, dates and rosters, Sulsky said.

Other previously announced captains include Scotland's Bruce Mouat (Europe 1), Switzerland's Alina Paetz (Europe 2), American Korey Dropkin (U.S.) and Japan's Chinami Yoshida (Asia/Pacific). Each team will have five men's and five women's curlers.

The Rock League info release will come after the Nov. 22-30 Montana's Canadian Curling Trials in Halifax and on the eve of the Dec. 16-21 HearingLife Tour Challenge in Saskatoon.

"The reality is Rock League is going to be a very