Jocelyn Peterman has been curling for more than 25 years, but as the Rock League gets set to kick off this week with promises to present “curling unleashed,” as per its tagline, she’s ready for just about anything. 

“I’m not used to being heckled mid-shot, or when I’m in the hack,” Peterman said, with a laugh, but she won’t be surprised if that happens at the league’s inaugural event, which opens Monday in Toronto. 

“There’s a bar between the (ice) sheets, and they’re bringing the fans right onto the ice, like NBA courtside-style seating,” veteran skipper Mike McEwen pointed out. “That’ll be new for us — fans will be at arm’s length, right beside you.” 

That rink-side fan experience is just one of the unique features included in the circuit, touting itself as “curling’s first professional league.” There’s a full season schedule lined up for 2027, but the Rock League is starting with a single-event preview, and it’s happening from April 6-12 at Toronto’s Mattamy Athletic Centre.

Sixty of the world’s best curlers from all over the map will be competing on six different franchises, each made up of five women and five men, and featuring a captain and GM. Every franchise will compete head-to-head in each of mixed doubles and four-person women’s and men’s games, and the winners — who’ll be decided Sunday afternoon — will earn $100,000 USD from a $250,000 total prize pot. 

The franchises feature many of the world’s best curlers thrown into a blender. Three-time world champions and long-time teammates Rachel Homan and Emma Miskew, for example, will be going head-to-head (Homan is the captain of Maple United; Miskew’s with Alpine Curling Club). Typhoon CC features players representing six different countries, including a pair of Swedish skips in Anna Hasselborg, who recently won her second Olympic gold medal, and Niklas Edin, who won his record eighth world championship gold on Saturday.  

And it’s not just the teams that are different from what curlers and fans are used to. So too are some of the rules featured in the Rock League.

“Nobody in curling has experienced anything like this,” McEwen said.

“As athletes, we don’t totally know what to expect,” Peterman added. “And in a way, that’s kind of exciting.” 

They’re among seven Canadians on the Maple United franchise, which is headlined by Homan and Xenia Schwaller, the skip who just led Switzerland to a world title. Olympic gold medallist Brad Jacobs is the captain of Shield CC, and the Canadian will be playing alongside Benoit Schwarz-van Berkel, who throws fourth stones for the Swiss team that won bronze in Cortina.

“They’re trying to do something new,” said Peterman. “I think it’s a bit of a fresh take on curling with some fun and excitement, and maybe a little bit of a lighter vibe in the arena and more fan engagement than some traditional curling events.” 

The Rock League has made a point of being unlike traditional curling events. 

Its first event will open with a round-robin that will see franchises going head-to-head in mixed doubles and both women’s and men’s four-person games; all three games happening simultaneously between franchises. The one that wins two out of three games earns a point in the standings, and a sweep nets 1.5 points.

Speed is on the agenda, too: To ensure games can be completed in two hours or less, four-person tilts will go just seven ends (Grand Slams feature eight, the Tournament of Hearts features 10) and mixed doubles will go eight. Players will get less thinking time out on the ice, too. “There’s not really much wiggle room to be slow at any point in the game,” said McEwen, who points out they’ll get about 80 per cent of the thinking time they’re used to in this new league. Even hammer will be determined quickly in round-robin play by a coin flip. Ties will be decided not by extra-ends, but by a draw to the button. 

And change can happen quickly, too, if a franchise’s GM decides to shake things up during a game. “All of a sudden, maybe I’m not skipping anymore, and Ross Whyte is throwing last rocks,” McEwen explained of a scenario that could play out with the Scottish skipper on Maple United. “That could happen mid-game, where you shift a player up or down.” 

Saturday, April 11 may result in the most shifts of all, since each franchise plays two four-person mixed doubles games, which leaves two of its players on the bench who can be added to the games at a moment’s notice. 

“Saturday almost goes to another level,” said McEwen, who was a late addition to Maple United after Matt Dunstone dropped out (Dunstone just yesterday led Canada to world championship silver, losing in the final to Sweden’s Edin). What the 45-year-old McEwen is most excited about is seeing Glenn Howard in action as his team’s GM. 

“He’ll be commanding the ship in a way that we’ve never had in curling before,” McEwen said of the four-time world champion. “He can make real decisions in games, flip you into different positions. As far as I’m aware, your GM can be flowing up and down between the sheets, walking right alongside like an NBA coach. So, this is really cool. I hope Glenn really owns it, and I think he will.” 

Peterman and her husband, Brett Gallant, who represented Canada in mixed doubles at the Olympics, are the obvious choice as Maple United’s mixed doubles pair. But there’s still uncertainty, if you ask Peterman. 

“Excitement and a bit of maybe nerves in terms of, we don’t know what our lineup’s going to be, and that might change game to game, or even midgame,” she said. “So that part’s interesting and new for us and definitely new for the teams.” 

So much of it is new that late last week, McEwen was still “wrapping my head around the format and the new rules,” as he put it. 

There are rules in place, for example, to try to amp up offence: Teams can blank just one end per game (any more blanks result in losing the hammer), the no-tick rule is in effect, and in the last end of each game, a team that covers the pin hole get two points. The league is also trying out a hog line challenge camera that would see teams get one challenge per game, and a loss in that challenge resulting in a docked timeout (or losing a minute of thinking time, if they’re already out of timeouts). 

There’s plenty of fun in place for fans, too, like feature theme nights — among them, tailgate Tuesday, costume night and pride night featuring complimentary nail painting. The Rock League’s official house band will also be playing before, during and after games. 

Peterman is hopeful the Rock League helps the sport draw younger fans. 

“I can’t tell you how many times we run into people and they say, ‘oh, you curl? My grandma watches you,’ and that’s kind of the running joke, but we do hear that constantly,” she explained. “We love that fan base, but it would be nice for those younger fans to say, ‘My grandma watches you, and I watch you, too.’” 

This first event is a teaser of sorts for a true opening season that starts in January of 2027, with five events planned in different locations across North America, including Moose Jaw, Sask., and Utica, NY. 

First up in Toronto on April 6 will be Alpine CC against Shield CC at 12 pm, for the first look at the Rock League, and it’s quite the opening matchup. The game will feature Jacobs against Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson in their first meeting since the double-touch controversy at the Olympics that saw the Swedes accuse Canada’s Marc Kennedy of illegally touching stones after releasing them, and Canada accuse Sweden of illegally filming the hog line.  

Maple United, meanwhile, makes its debut on Monday at 7 pm against Northern United, which is captained by two-time world champion Bruce Mouat of Scotland.

And while all the details are in place, curlers still aren’t quite sure what to expect until play gets underway. 

“It’s such a fresh take on curling — the format on ice, crowd experience, things going on in the venue, the theme nights,” McEwen said, of what’s to come. “I don’t even know how to process it, but I’m going in headfirst and very excited.”