Curl Aberdeen under threat of closure as urgent fundraising appeal launched

Press and Journal

30-04-2025

Aberdeen's only dedicated curling rink has warned it faces the biggest threat in its 20-year history due to rising energy costs and a sharp drop in membership.
Curl Aberdeen, off the Lang Stracht, is trying to raise £160,000 in a one-month appeal to avoid potential closure and ensure the facility can continue into the next season.
The club, which hosted the European Curling Championships in 2023, has seen its annual energy bill almost double to over £120,000 – a cost it says is unsustainable.
Chairman Graham Russell described the situation as 'a perfect storm' of financial pressures, with the club also having lost one-third of its membership – around 200 curlers – since Covid.
He said: 'It's ironic that in our 20th anniversary year, we're facing an existential threat to our future.
'The impact of Covid changed how people interact socially and we haven't seen those numbers return.'
Despite efforts to remain accessible and affordable for the community, that very approach has combined to leave the club financially exposed.
In a letter to members, Mr Russell said Curl Aberdeen's savings had 'completely eroded'.
With traditional borrowing off the table – due to a restriction placed by Aberdeen City Council preventing the club from using its facility as loan security – the club's only option is direct member support.
'If you want the finest curling rink in Scotland to survive, all members and staff need to assist,' he wrote. 'Without your help, we will have to stop trading.'
If Curl Aberdeen reaches its £160,000 targets, the funds will do more than simply keep the rink open through to the start of the next curling season in October.
£75,000 of the total is earmarked to upgrade the club's ageing 20-year-old ice plant with a more energy-efficient system—an essential move to tackle the spiralling energy costs that are strangling the club's finances.
'We don't need to raise the money all at once,' insists Mr Russell, 'but we need the commitment that our members are willing to support us.
'We've never locked anyone out of Curl Aberdeen due to money, and we won't start now. But we need those who can afford to help to support us.'
The crisis has been a wake up call.
'We've learned some hard lessons,' said the chairman. 'We haven't done enough to bring in young players, and now our average age is too high. That has to change.'
The club is now developing a pathway programme to turn casual interest, like the 200 people who tried curling last year, into regular participation.
It's also drawing inspiration from its own success stories.
'Two of our members are Olympians currently competing in Canada at the World Seniors,' said Russell.
'And we have a world junior Olympian, Ethan Brewster, who's a brilliant role model for young curlers in Aberdeen. That's the future we want to build on.'
The club is determined to use this challenge to reimagine how it operates.
'Mistakes have been made and now we are driven to correct them,' Russell admitted.
'Should we have saved more money when times were better? Yes. But I'm not sure we could have foreseen Covid, quickly followed by increased energy costs.'
That includes improving energy efficiency and promoting the club's facilities, including conference spaces that could bring in new revenue streams.
Curl Aberdeen's appeal runs through May, with the club's board set to review the outcome in early June.
'Then we will decide if we are going to get enough support to go with the whole plan, or whether we're going to have to restrict our plans, or whether, we're going to have to close the door,' said Mr Russell. 'That is the sum and substance of it.'