A metallurgical ladle, and more particularly the bottom of the ladle or a ladle block in the bottom of the ladle, have an outlet through which the molten metal can drain. The ladle bottom contains an open-end channel bounded by at least one wall with a major dimension perpendicular to a line joining the center of the outlet entrance to the center of the wall. In selected configurations, opposing faces of the walls bounding the open-end channel are convex in the horizontal plane and concave in the horizontal plane, respectively.