(by Terry Jones, QMI Agency).

RED DEER, Alta. – How did this happen? How did the city which played host to the much-maligned “Redneck Brier” of 1994 become the go-to town for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts?

And how, exactly did women’s curling end up this big, with television numbers rivaling those of the men?

“It has become the No. 1 women’s sports event in Canada,” said Warren Hansen, events manager of the Canadian Curling Association.

“There is nothing else in Canadian women’s sport which can compare, with 60 hours of live television with really good numbers and the profile the event and the curlers have developed over the years.”

It’s happened. And Red Deer becoming the crown jewel location for the jewelry set of sports is a happening.

Red Deer has turned into a place where women curlers come to get their biggest hugs — and they’ve been getting a lot of them lately.

The Scotties opened here Saturday with a near-capacity crowd in the 6,700-seat building where Ryan Nugent-Hopkins spent the previous two years, after a ballistic evening to open it the night before.

“The pre-tournament night we had here Friday night blew my socks off,” said Hansen of Red Deer taking an approach tried for the first time last year at the Scotties in Charlottetown.

“It was bulging at the seams,” he said of the giant party room for 2,500. “We had 300 people lined up outside.”

Once upon a time the Brier played places like Charlottetown, Kingston, Fort William, Kitchener-Waterloo, Brandon, Hull, Kelowna, Oshawa, St. John’s, Saint John, Victoria, Fredericton, Sudbury, Moncton, Chicoutimi, Sault Ste. Marie, Kamloops and, in 1994, Red Deer.

Now those are the sort of places the Scotties goes.

Twice they’ve been held in Charlottetown, including last year. And both times Kim Dolan has been head of the organizing committee. Saturday she was back being skip of Prince Edward Island.

It’s the eighth Scotties for the 53-year-old who went to her first way back in 1983 in Prince George, B.C., when the attendance was 17,402.

“It’s amazing where it has all come since then,” she said.

“The event has really evolved. There were such small crowds and not much profile. The growth has been incredible. The Olympics changed everything. And TSN.

“Yet it is an event which is accessible to a community like ours with a smaller venue.”

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