If you’ve spent any time around a curling club, you’ve probably heard someone say “broomstacking time” after a game. And if you’re new to the sport, you might be wondering what that means and whether you’re even invited.
You are. Everyone is. That’s kind of the whole point.
The tradition behind the name
The term goes back to when curlers played outdoors on frozen ponds. After a game, they’d throw all their brooms in a pile in front of a fire and enjoy a drink with their opponents. The brooms are mostly carbon fiber now and the pond is a climate-controlled sheet of ice, but the tradition stuck and so did the name.
What actually happens
Broomstacking is a social gathering that happens after a game or between games at a bonspiel, OR in the middle of your game, depending on how it’s going (4th end fireball shots at Seattle’s April Spiel are a fond memory of mine).
Both teams sit down together, grab a drink, and just hang out.
Traditionally, the winning team buys the first round for the losing team, with each winner buying their counterpart a drink. Nobody’s rubbing it in. That’s just not how curling works.
Why it matters
Curling has always been as much about who you play with as how you play. As one competitive curler put it, broomstacking is “part of the polite nature of curling, it’s good for kindness.” You spend a couple hours trying to knock each other’s rocks out of the house and then you sit down and laugh about it together. It’s a pretty good way to do sports.
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