Curling Nationals coming to the area

AS IT TURNS OUT, curling is about a lot more than racy calendars and handsome Canadian women.

Beyond Lindsey Vonn and the requisite spandexed skaters, the lingering images of the 2010 Winter Olympics remain the Women of Curling calendar and determined Canadian skip Cheryl Bernard.

Feel free to recall those images over the next 8 days at the 2012 USA Curling Nationals at IceWorks Skating Complex, the Delaware County rink in Aston, best known for hosting some of the best skaters and coaches in the world.

IceWorks' rinks will be converted to curling sheets as 21 teams compete. The winners go to the World Championships next month, the women in Alberta, Canada and the men in Basel, Switzerland. The two men's and women's teams at the USA Nationals also will qualify for the Olympic team trials next year.

With more than a dozen past Olympians on hand, competition is expected to be stiffer than ever, said USA Curling chief operating officer Rick Patzke, thanks to a curling boom in the United States.

"It's been remarkable," Patzke said.

U.S. Curling membership bounced almost 19 percent since curling became a favorite after-work gambling pastime during the Vancouver games. Watering holes became crammed with bettors - sometimes ignorant of curling's rules and strategies - who often wagered on each stone thrown.

Of course, the international lovelies throwing the stones surely kept the interest high.

"I don't mind it, if it's tastefully done," Patzke said.

"And if it helps promote the sport," said Janice Langanke, who will skip the No. 9 seed in the tournament out of South Plainfield, N.J.

The tournament landed just outside of Philadelphia because USA Curling is eager to branch it out from the more traditional Midwestern sites and back onto the East Coast, which hasn't hosted the event since 2007.

Also, with just over a month to prepare, the Philadelphia delegation - the Philadelphia Sports Congress and IceWorks - put together a bid in the fall of 2010 that simply outclassed the other five.

"We're very excited to be there," Patzke said.

Curling is exciting a lot of people.

The Philadelphia Curling Club, near IceWorks in Paoli, Chester County, has filled its league slots with about 200 members. The Plainfield club has hit that number, too . . . and even has a waiting list.

Of the 149 clubs that belong to USA Curling, 15 are new since the Vancouver games.

"The curling clubs all over the country have been saturated with new members," said Lisa Shaw, the event coordinator for IceWorks.

IceWorks plans to capitalize. They anticipate as many as 10,000 to attend over the tournament's duration.

Some clubs rent ice time. Others hope to build their own buildings and create their own sheets, like the Philly club.

Of course, curling in America remains a curiosity compared with, say, Canada. Even with the boom, there are fewer than 17,000 curlers in the U.S.

Canada has 1 million.

Patzke hopes to hit 100,000 one day, and bringing the Nationals to the most populous area in the country should help.

And, of course, it will increase the pool of calendar candidates.