Broomball is hardly a craze that is sweeping the nation and truth be told, despite its name, the sport really doesn’t involve that much sweeping. But the fledgling game is about to be whisked into the spotlight and it should receive a huge boost in these parts as the Greater Vancouver Broomball Association prepares to play host to the World Broomball Championships early next month.

The 52-team tournament, involving more than 1,000 participants, will take place November 3 to 8 at Burnaby’s Canlan Ice Sports (8 Rinks), along with New Westminster’s venerable Queen’s Park Arena. It will feature teams from every province in this country, a number of teams from throughout the United States, and representatives from Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and as far away as Australia and Japan. The tournament will include competition in four divisions-men’s, women’s, mixed, and, for the first time ever, there will be a masters event for the 45-and-over set.

"This will be the largest broomball tournament ever," tournament director Marc Smith tells the Georgia Straight in a telephone interview. "It used to be a North American-only event before it went international in 1996. It has been held in Italy in the past, but it’s usually held in North America just because it’s easier to get a few European teams to come over here rather than getting most of the teams that are from Canada and the U.S. to go over there."

The world championships are held every two years, and Burnaby first made a pitch to play host to the event four years ago in an attempt to land the 2006 tournament, which ended up going to Minnesota. Undeterred, Smith and his small committee of broomball enthusiasts came back with a successful bid for the 2008 event. And they’re now busy putting the finishing touches on their plans to welcome the world.

"This is a great chance to showcase broomball ahead of the 2010 Olympics," adds Smith, who’s been playing the game for more than 30 years. "It’s not an Olympic sport right now, but there certainly is a movement to make broomball part of the Olympics at some point down the road. It just made sense to have this tournament here this year ahead of the 2010 games and we’re hoping to get local Olympic officials out to have a look."

For many, broomball is one of those games tried once for a lark years ago in a high-school phys-ed class and then never thought of again. Smith admits that the participation numbers are low, and he says broomball, like so many other winter pursuits, is simply a victim of the numbers game, with Lower Mainlanders having so many other options for recreational activities. He figures there are about 500 active broomball players throughout British Columbia and somewhere in the neighbourhood of 15,000 nationwide-most of those in Ontario and Quebec, where the winters are longer.

He calls it a poor man’s version of hockey because both games are played on ice and the general rules are the same. But Smith says that what makes broomball an attractive option for some is that broomball players don’t require all of the expensive equipment needed for hockey.

"There’s no question it’s an alternative to hockey, and it’s outstanding cardio because there’s no gliding like there is in hockey," says Smith, who plays both broomball and hockey. "You’re always running when you’re on the ice."

Smith says that although most levels of broomball are non-contact, that is not the case in the competitive men’s division that will be on display at the world championships. And he says he fully expects to see a few bodies fly over the course of the week. He says the fact that collisions are permitted within the rules of the game is one of the biggest misconceptions about broomball.

Ultimately, the goal of the Greater Vancouver Broomball Association is to use these world championships to attract enough attention to form a local broomball league. Right now, the association members gather on Saturday nights at the Burnaby Winter Club to have some fun and get some exercise. But with only 25 regulars, there’s not enough players to form a league, so the group plays for fun once a week and travels to the occasional tournament.

Smith is convinced that people will be hooked on broomball once they see the sport at the level at which it will be played during the championships.

"We’re trying really hard to build the sport in Vancouver, and we think we can build a league," he says. "That is the real legacy we’re hoping for by hosting this tournament."

The round-robin portion of the event runs on six separate rinks in Burnaby throughout the day and night from November 4 to 6. The playoffs are Friday (November 7), with the finals slated for Saturday (November 8).

"The round robin will take place at 8 Rinks, but we needed a larger venue for the finals," Smith explains. "We liked the history of Queen’s Park. It’s such a beautiful building."

Smith and his organizing committee are counting down the days until the championships. But Smith is still looking for volunteer scorekeepers to help officiate the round-robin games. Contact information and full details about the 2008 World Broomball Championships can be found at the official tournament Web site: www.vancouverbroomball.com/.

Jeff Paterson is a sportscaster and talk show host on Vancouver’s all-sports radio, Team 1040. E-mail him at jeff.paterson@team1040.ca.