The stones are sliding again in Bowling Green, and by all accounts more northwest Ohioans than ever want to try sliding one. Curling — the Olympic sport of granite stones, brooms and shouted instructions — is booming in northwest Ohio, club members told The Blade in a story published this weekend, as the Bowling Green Curling Club moves into the heart of its 2026-27 season at the Black Swamp Curling Center.
The Blade’s account, as carried in its Toledo coverage, introduced readers to members like Jason Raihala, who began watching curling when he was 5 years old — the kind of lifelong fascination the club says is now converting casual Olympic viewers into league players. The Bowling Green Curling Club is the only curling club in northwest Ohio, according to the club’s own site, which makes its rinks the region’s front door to the sport.
The club curls at the Black Swamp Curling Center, 19901 North Dixie Highway in Bowling Green, a dedicated facility with free parking, a warm viewing room and The 9th End bar, according to the club. Spectators are always welcome to watch for free, the club says — an easy first step for the curling-curious before ever stepping on the ice.
The season is young. The club held its Opening Clubspiel on Saturday, October 24, according to its event listings, and its regular season runs from late October to early April, with the center open weekday evenings and Sunday afternoons during the season. The timing is no accident: interest in curling reliably spikes in Olympic and championship seasons, and the club builds its beginner pipeline for exactly those moments.
For newcomers, the on-ramp is deliberately small. A two-hour Learn-to-Curl session costs $40 and includes basic instruction and practice followed by a real game, according to the club. A Starter League for non-members runs $120, youth curlers ages 6 to 10 can join the Rockstars program for $75, and full single-league membership is $550, with discounts for new curlers, youth and college players, the club’s membership page says.
The club’s roots run deep. Bowling Green State University opened its ice arena on February 10, 1967, with four dedicated sheets of curling ice, and the Bowling Green Curling Club was chartered in the 1968-69 season, according to the club’s history. The club says it is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3), and its center now hosts the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University curling programs as well — a college pipeline we also follow in our Bowling Green coverage, including Bowling Green State’s program review announced this week.
Only five eight-enders — the rare end in which all eight of one team’s stones score — have been recorded in the club’s 57-year history, two at the old arena and three at the new center, according to the club. That scarcity is part of the sport’s local lore, and part of why bonspiels, the weekend tournaments the club has hosted since 1967, still draw teams from across the region and Canada.
League play is the club’s weekly backbone. Membership options range from the Rockstars youth program and the starter league up to a Gold Membership at $1,000 for the full season, according to the club’s 2026-27 membership listing, and league members range from grade-school students to retirees. The center’s warm room and The 9th End bar overlook the ice, so a league night doubles as a social night for players and spectators alike — one reason, members say, that beginners who come to watch so often end up registering to play.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the 2026-27 season is under way, beginner sessions and starter leagues are enrolling through the club’s website, and membership spans grade-school Rockstars to retirees. What we are still waiting on: the club’s full winter bonspiel calendar and whether this season’s beginner classes fill as quickly as club members told The Blade they have been.
What happens next: league play settles into its weekly rhythm at the Black Swamp Curling Center through the winter, with Learn-to-Curl sessions as the standing invitation. Anyone who has ever yelled at a television during the Olympics, the club’s pitch goes, is welcome to come yell on the ice instead — spectators first, for free, any curling night.
Photo: Michael (a.k.a. moik) McCullough, CC BY