The North Bay Granite Club continues to look at diversification with it’s facility in North Bay.

General Manager Bobby Ray tells BayToday it’s partly thanks to a bit of a shift away from an exclusively volunteer-run facility to a team of management and staff.

“They’ve got the time to go out and seek out new opportunities,” he says.  “We’ve got a roller derby team they’re practicing three times a week in the summer.  We have sampled pickle ball and in the back of our minds we are looking at applying for a Trillium Grant to install pickle ball courts outdoors next to our tennis courts.” 

Ray says they have about 250 members with tennis, including a doubles league that is maxed out.

Overall, he says summer usage of the facility is much greater then it has been in past.

As for curling, Ray says teaching the sport could help increase registration.

“The ability teach curling and where we are going with that is is looking at the possibility of hiring a curling pro. Golf clubs has golf pros, tennis clubs have tennis pros, why don’t curling clubs have curling pros?  That is a question our board is throwing around and I think you will see that be fulfilled soon,” he says.

Hosting the 2018 Ford World Women’s Curling event in North Bay has also had an impact.

Ray believes a summer camp coming to the club and a big jump in teams for the Summer Spiel,  from 24 or 32 in the past to 48 this year, are due in part to the exposure the city received during the March event.

Check out BayToday.ca for the full story.

 

File photo by Jeff Turl/BayToday.ca

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