(BLAINE) – A small army of blue sweatshirt-clad broomball fans from Australia made their home in the bleachers at Schwan Super Rink at the National Sports Center last week. They watched a team of Aussie men and women square off against a team of men and women from Minnesota in the 13th annual World Broomball Championship.
“I haven’t seen eight rinks together!” said Kim Shapley, a masters level (over 40) player who also traveled to Blaine to play for his Australia Dingoes team in the tournament in 2006. “We’ve got one rink in Adelaide. We’ve got probably 12 (in Australia), so it’s a huge difference.”
“The key is you’ve got everyone under one roof,” said Al “Woody” Stauffacher, co-director of the tournament. “You usually don’t have that at most tournaments. You can see in the mezzanine area, everybody’s watching different games and they can change around.”
It’s also provided a boost to the north metro region, economically. Barclay Kruse with the National Sports Center said the teams and fans from the 33 of 46 visiting teams will spend approximately $1.5 million while they’re in town, with a total economic impact at $2.3 million.
Organizers say Minnesota may be the hotbed for broomball in the U.S. More than a dozen Minnesota teams played across all of the divisions in the world championship tournament.
“It’s a great fit,” said Stauffacher. “You know you’re going to have a great tournament with that many teams based in your backyard.”
He predicted sell-out crowds for the championship games, and fans and players say that’s an incredible environment in which to play.
“(The U.S.) has something like 500 teams or something like that,” said Shapley. “Back home, we’ve got like five, so it’s quite a big difference.”
