Where is the Czech curling extraliga heading?
This photo shows the environment in which we played extraliga back in 2003.
The first weekend in December marked the start of the 2025/2026 season of the top men's curling competition. Nearly four months have passed since the opening of the Roztyl Association's specialised hall after the summer break. In the first two-fifths of this season several international tournaments have already been played in Prague and Zbraslav, in adult, junior, wheelchair and MD categories. The Men's Extraliga was the last on the schedule, which is obviously too late. It would not hurt to think not only about the calendar of dates, but also about the technical and organizational level.
It's been more than a quarter of a century since the Czech Curling Federation's competition system was created, which included several quality levels, including the top competition, later renamed the extraliga. Several variations of permeability have been tried out over time and changes have also been made to the structure of the lower competitions. The Extraliga was conceived as a selection platform for players with national team ambitions. It was the top competition to invite partners, sponsors, politicians, representatives of other sports organizations and to show off how well and responsibly we organize our elite competition, which will become the national team. We deliberately chose the most demanding format of ten-end matches played twice a day to test the physical fitness of the participants and thus offer well-prepared teams the opportunity to show their quality. Split timekeeping was introduced first and later "thinking-time" to teach teams time management. The umpires have been trained and we staff each game day of the extraliga with a tandem of experienced umpires. We have turned the club restaurant into a space from where matches can be watched comfortably with screens showing clearly the situations in the goal circles. We have created ice surface standards which, if followed, should enable teams to prepare for international matches of the highest level.
Some of the attributes that accompany our top competition, however, have begun to disappear over the past few years. First, the screens went blind and the level of service in the restaurant declined. In recent seasons, we have even struggled with fluctuating ice quality, which at times has reached a more or less non-competitive level. Sometimes the timekeeper for one of the lanes was missing, and gradually more and more laps were played to the overall time limit. Although there is currently a noticeable effort to improve the quality of the ice, the service in the restaurant and not to discount some good habits (use of IS, nomination of erudite umpires, functioning facilities, etc.), but overall it can be said that instead of the level of the lower competitions rising, the elite one is starting to look like a regular entertainment tournament. The opening two-day round, now played over eight ends, offered 16 games, half of which were played over seven ends, two ended in extra ends, five were eight ends, and in one case the teams were on the ice for only six ends. No one found it strange anymore that the game was played to a total time limit of 110 minutes to play six ends (after the time limit expires, the end is played and then another one is played to a maximum of eight ends). Clearly disadvantaging teams that are used to a fair pace of match management. There is a five-minute break in the time clock, but conversely, according to the umpire's statement, there is no entitlement to a one-minute break between ends. This works out at a comfortable 17.5 minutes per end, whereas the original, old time allocation offered 14.24 minutes per end (before the introduction of "thinking-time"). The parameters of the ice surface could and should have been better, but we are paying the tax of playing an elite competition at a time when the ice and stones are extremely busy with dozens of social and sporting events.