Future of bass tourney teeters

The Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship has reached a crisis stage.
This great community event experienced staggering losses this year, and for almost half of its life, has lost money. The directors who spend countless hours holding the event for the community were given a complete scare.
This year, the tournament faced the perfect storm.
They lost a key volunteer Ron Erb who looked after the site and the chair Tom Fry had to take on added burdens to both erect and tear down the waterfront site. The board went into the tournament with incomplete staffing and as a result, some areas of tournament management were non-existent as people were not on board to fill the roles.
The tournament faced an unexpected $18,000 increased cost of security to protect the Abitibi wood yard, and be able to park fishermen’s boats in the yard. That increase came on top of increased costs for policing by OPP officers.
Attendance dropped off dramatically for Wednesday and Thursday evening and those losses in revenue contributed to the overall loss.
In order to secure a licence to operate a bar on site, the Liquor and Gaming Commission has insisted that paid police be present. This year for a first time, the Rainy River Walleye Tournament also had to pay for paid policemen on site. That too has jeopardized that tournament.
Since its beginnings in 1995, the tournament has seen its costs rise. With the downturn this year in the economy, cash sponsorships declined by almost $14,000. The directors had anticipated a decline in cash sponsorships for 2009, but had not expected such a huge reduction.
Yes there were some new sponsors, but not enough to make up for those that were lost.
Other sponsorship services provided by businesses and service provided also declined and those lost sponsorships had to be replaced by cash purchases.
Despite the cool weather, the fishermen had a great week. They saw another face of Rainy Lake. The fishermen struggled to catch fish, but had a lot of fun. They look forward to returning.
The remaining members of the board made some clear decisions last Wednesday evening. They would like to see another tournament and festival for the community. But they realize that without a full and committed board of directors, another tournament should not proceed.
They realize that the present location is the best location and gives Fort Frances a unique tournament and festival. They also realized that the costs of setting up the facility on the waterfront costs between $30-$40,000. Moving to the Sportsplex would make the tournament much more affordable.
The directors realize that the pool of volunteers, who number over 300 and create the community atmosphere for the fishermen, is diminishing as the volunteers experience burn out. Anything that reduces the workload on volunteers is welcome.
The purpose of the tournament originally was to promote tourism on Rainy Lake and be an economic development tool for the community. As a result of the tournament, Rainy Lake is recognized as a top bass lake in North America and more recently as an excellent lake to catch walleye on. In turn, resorts are filled with fishermen from the opening of the season through to the Thanksgiving weekend.
The Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship faces many hurdles in the next few weeks. Other tournaments in the region are also facing funding problems and the loss of volunteers. Every community where a tournament currently exists will have to consider the tournament’s social and economic value to the community and region.
–Jim Cumming,
Publisher