Perth, Scotland – The World Curling Federation has today announced that it is expanding its long-standing partnership with Rock Solid Productions Inc., the global leader in iceless curling.
The partnership will promote floor curling within the World Curling Federation’s membership and aid in the establishment of new Member Associations. The partnership will see the World Curling Federation manage the governance for the floor curling discipline.
World Curling Federation President, Beau Welling said, “The World Curling Federation is delighted to grow our partnership with Rock Solid Productions and expand the role that floor curling can provide in promoting and developing our sport.
“We’ve seen substantial membership growth over the last number of years but many of our younger members don’t have access to ice to practice. Floor curling has a track record of successfully introducing curling to the masses and this new partnership will allow us to take it one step further by introducing tournaments to the off-ice discipline.”
Rock Solid Productions was founded in 2008 and its products are currently present in over 60 countries worldwide. Since its establishment, Rock Solid Productions has provided floor curling opportunities to millions of people. Tens of thousands of these floor curlers —primarily school children— eventually started playing on ice.
Rock Solid Productions President, Chad McMullan said, “As official partners of the World Curling Federation since 2015, we are very excited about this next step in the evolution of floor curling.
“Floor curling is a naturally inclusive sport, allowing people of all abilities to be able to compete together, at the same time. We have delivered almost three million floor curling experiences in Canada over the past 15 years, and this expanded partnership will help bring those opportunities to the rest of the world as well.”
World Curling Federation, Head of Development, Scott Arnold added, “One of the goals of this partnership was to standardise the rules of floor curling. This has been accomplished with the publishing of the World Floor Curling™ Official Rules of Play and Official Rules of Competition.
“To make these new rule books more accessible, we created online courses. These are presently in English, but our intention is to translate the courses into other languages to aid in the adaptation and growth of floor curling throughout our membership.”
World Curling Federation Commercial Partnerships Manager James Beatt said, “The partnership will provide our member associations the opportunity to create new pathways to further commercialise the sport in their respective nations. This is the first step to break down barriers to entry and reduce the cost to participate worldwide.”
