(by Allen Cameron)
Don’t worry, the cheques are in the mail.
That’s the gist of the message being sent to the best curling teams on the planet in the wake of prize payouts from last month’s Sun Life Financial Grand Slam Players’ Championship in Summerside, P.E.I., drying up.
Several teams have been frustrated in their efforts to collect their winnings from the season-ending showdown, although none would speak publicly on the topic because they don’t want to put the promised payments in jeopardy. But one player, asking for anonymity, confirmed there’s a great deal of frustration over the situation as the payouts from the Players’ Championships are among the highest of the season.
But Kevin Albrecht of iSport Media and Management, which operates the Grand Slam events, said the lack of funding to cover the payouts was a simple mistake, and that new cheques and electronic payments were being arranged this week.
“It was just an honest administrative paperwork error that was out of the control of the Grand Slams,” said Albrecht on Tuesday. “It’s being taken care of as we speak, and the payments will be sent out by the end of this week.”