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CALGARY (CP) - The Canadian Curling Association is looking at two new proposals after walking away from its four-year television deal with CBC last week. "I'm expecting that the outcome will be a very positive deal for the sport," CEO Dave Parkes said Tuesday in an interview with The Canadian Press.
 "We had a very good meeting yesterday (Monday) and I'm expecting another very good meeting next week or late this week. I can't give you much at this point because we're in the early stages of this process." The CCA served CBC with a letter terminating its contract citing non-performance and an inability to fix a number of problems that drew the ire of curling fans from coast-to-coast during this year's Scott Tournament of Hearts, Tim Hortons Brier and Ford World curling championships. Nancy Lee, the head of CBC Television Sports, said last week the public broadcaster has three years left on its contract and will seek damages. "We've told them we're going to seek legal damages for sure. They knew that and we wanted to make it very clear as to the risks of where they're going with this and we had long, long talks with their legal counsel," she said. CBC did not tender a new offer despite an invitation to do so, said Parkes. The CCA won't waste any time coming up with a new TV partner, he said. "I'd like to think we'd have something finished within the next three weeks. Curling fans expressed outrage over TV coverage of the sport this year with the CCA, Scott Paper, and the CBC receiving thousands of phone calls and e-mails. The main complaint was that curling was carried on three different television channels. The afternoon draws were on the CBC main network while the digital CBC channel Country Canada and the all-sports channel The Score carried the evening draws. Parkes said the drastic move to look for a new television partner shouldn't cause any of the three major sponsors to walk away from the sport. "We weathered last year together and we've kept them informed where we are in this process," he said. "Obviously they, like we, are looking forward to going ahead with positive stuff again. "I'm at this point not thinking we would lose any sponsors as a result of the television situation." Scott Paper, which has sponsored the last 24 Canadian women's curling championships, was informed of the CCA's plans to walk away from its contract with CBC, but wasn't ready to react to the move Tuesday. "We're trying to understand what's going on at this point in time and when we better understand the situation we will be better prepared to make an official statement in regards to the issue," said Stephen Blythe, marketing director for Scott Paper. Parkes wouldn't disclose which networks had made proposals for a new TV deal but one most certainly would be TSN, which lost its rights in last year's deal with CBC. "TSN has no comment on the current situation with the Canadian Curling Association," TSN spokeswoman Andrea Goldstein said. "But I will tell you TSN's audience relations department has received tremendous support from curling fans and viewers across the country expressing their desire for things to work out positively for TSN."  
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