Twenty years ago, in Canada there wasn’t such a great divide between pros and amateurs. The “pros” we’re just the very best of the amateurs. As more money has become available for pro teams, the gulf is widening, but the pros still grow out of the community rinks.
An anecdote: I used to curl in a weekend league. One time, after the game, we were sitting around over a coffee and the skip reminded us that there was no game next week.
Someone asked why, and he said that it was the city-wide tournament, so the rink was booked for that.
Someone else interrupted and said, “No, it’s the opening round of the Brier.” (The Canada men’s championship.)
They were both right. Whoever won the city tournament advanced to the provincials; the winner of the provincials got to represent Saskatchewan in the Brier.
The best curlers in Canada had to compete in the same process as good “amateurs” to make it to the Brier. And good “amateurs” had the chance to play against some of the best curlers and maybe knock them out of the competition b
The 1998 women’s Olympic gold medalists, the Schmirler team, curled out of that same rink where I played in a little Saturday rec league.