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October 16, 2002
Stockton reels in a big BASS ... tourney
Pete Ottesen, The Record
The San Joaquin Convention & Vistors Bureau has hooked the world's largest fishing organization into coming to Stockton and will host a nationally-televised professional Bass Anglers Sportsman Society fishing tournament April 3-6 on the D elta.
That's when BASS -- the most recognized icon in the outdoor industry which recently teamed with ESPN television to form a fishing organization that boasts 580,000 members and an event company that pays out $9.2 million to anglers -- comes to town. The tournament will focus on downtown Stockton, at Morelli Park where 100 boats will blast off at safe light each morning and the Weber Point Events Center where weigh-ins will take place about 3 p.m. each day.
BASS spokesman Dewey Kendrick said, ''The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is known as possibly the best black bass fishery west of Texas.'' Kendrick, the tournament site selection manager for BASS also tabbed another California location -- Clear Lake -- for a tournament on April 10-13.
The Delta's waterways have been cited by Sports Afield magazine as among the top 10 black bass fisheries in America and clearly ''best in the west.''
In all, the Bassmaster Tour will include 10 stops across the United States, starting Jan. 9-12 at Florida's Harris Chain of Lakes at Leesburg and concluding May 22-25 on the Alabama River near Montgomery. To qualify to fish in the Stockton tournament, anglers must do well in six previous events held in bass fishing strongholds in the southern states of Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina.
''The format guarantees we will be hosting 350 out-of-towners, including anglers, spouses and television crew,'' said Don Miller, sports commission director for the convention and visitors bureau. ''Economic impact is our primary reason for bringing BASS to Stockton We estimate the tournament will bring a minimum of $500,000 in economic impact to our city and, perhaps, up to $1.5 million.
''For us to bring an event that is televised on ESPN is a major accomplishment for the Sports Commission,'' he said. ''National television coverage does wonders for a positive image of not only downtown Stockton, but the entire Delta. We do not know who we might reach, how many might come here to fish or watch the tournament on television who will say Stockton looks like a pretty cool place.''
The Sports Commission raises more than $100,000 annually to allow it to bid on events and attract them to Stockton. To secure BASS, the commission had to pay $40,000 and provide another $5,000 in in-kind services such as rooms, meals and waivers of some city fees.
''It's pretty commonplace for the Sports Commission to pay upfront fees,'' Miller said. ''When we host the California Interscholastic Federation's state high school wrestling tournament that costs us about $30,000. But it isn't televised. Our job is to bring business here through hotels and restaurants and this fishing tournament guarantees it will bring people and their money.''
Miller said there is surprising heft to the BASS flock of anglers:
* More than 64 million people go fishing in the U.S. That's more than the combined total of golfers and tennis players and amounts to a $108 billion industry.
* More than 600,000 subscribe to Bassmaster magazine, the publication owned by BASS. Their median age is 45 years old and their average income is $63,342.
Like other niche sports, BASS hopes to convert grassroots anglers into television ratings. The Stockton tournament will be broadcast as a complete 60-minute program and be repeated on ESPN. Coverage includes graphics that reveal underwater topography and expanded camera placement that makes it more likely each show will feature big fish.
Stockton has already hosted two smaller BASS western invitationals in the past five years, sans television. Those events produced champion anglers that caught 15 black bass over three days that averaged greater than five pounds per fish. The April 1999 event on the Delta produced a 14-pound, 9-ounce black bass, the largest single fish ever caught at any BASS-sponsored tournament.
A unique aspect of the new BASS-ESPN organization is the tournament format. Two hundred anglers will fish April 3-4. However, when the event goes into its final stages -- on April 5-6 -- the field is reduced to just 12 anglers.
The reduced field will allow a camera boat to follow each angler -- so television producers can swtich from one angler to the next -- any time a fish is on the line. ''It's a concept made for television just like they are trying to do with NASCAR, the auto racing circuit,'' Miller said.
He said Citgo Petroleum Corporation expects a return of $2 in media value for every dollar it spends sponsoring the Bassmaster Tournament.
''We believe we're going to get great brand identity and exposure,'' said Phillip Thompson of Citgo.
To develop a local audience for the Stockton event and especially the afternoon weigh-in ceremonies, Miller and BASS intend to create a festival atmosphere with all sorts of booths, displays of boating and fishing equipment and casting contests for kids, trumped by a real incentive -- free admission.
''BASS is bringing in a $50,000 portable stage, perfect for television with sophisiticated cameras, lights and sound systems,'' Miller said. ''Around this venue and under the Weber Point canopy we will create a big, four-day outdoors show that even non-anglers will be attracted to see.''
When asked if he was a fisherman, Miller shrugged his shoulders and laughed saying, ''I don't fish but I have caught myself watching bass tournament weigh-ins on television.''
Miller's goal is straight-forward when he says, ''We want to make a very positive local economic impact and show the world, through television, that Stockton is the black bass fishing capitol of the west.''
Pete Ottesen covers the outdoors for The Record. Mail: P.O. Box 900, Stockton, CA 95201; Fax: 547-8187; E-mail: pottesen@recordnet.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BASS Fishing Tournament
* What: Citgo Bassmaster Tour
* When: April 3-6, 2003
* Where: Downtown Stockton at Morelli Park and Weber Point Events Center
* Who: 200 anglers who must qualify by competing at six previous events held in southern states of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Louisiana.
* Activities: Outdoors festival, kids casting contest, weigh-in ceremonies start at noon daily. Free admission.
Stockton reels in a big BASS ... tourney
Pete Ottesen, The Record
The San Joaquin Convention & Vistors Bureau has hooked the world's largest fishing organization into coming to Stockton and will host a nationally-televised professional Bass Anglers Sportsman Society fishing tournament April 3-6 on the D elta.
That's when BASS -- the most recognized icon in the outdoor industry which recently teamed with ESPN television to form a fishing organization that boasts 580,000 members and an event company that pays out $9.2 million to anglers -- comes to town. The tournament will focus on downtown Stockton, at Morelli Park where 100 boats will blast off at safe light each morning and the Weber Point Events Center where weigh-ins will take place about 3 p.m. each day.
BASS spokesman Dewey Kendrick said, ''The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is known as possibly the best black bass fishery west of Texas.'' Kendrick, the tournament site selection manager for BASS also tabbed another California location -- Clear Lake -- for a tournament on April 10-13.
The Delta's waterways have been cited by Sports Afield magazine as among the top 10 black bass fisheries in America and clearly ''best in the west.''
In all, the Bassmaster Tour will include 10 stops across the United States, starting Jan. 9-12 at Florida's Harris Chain of Lakes at Leesburg and concluding May 22-25 on the Alabama River near Montgomery. To qualify to fish in the Stockton tournament, anglers must do well in six previous events held in bass fishing strongholds in the southern states of Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina.
''The format guarantees we will be hosting 350 out-of-towners, including anglers, spouses and television crew,'' said Don Miller, sports commission director for the convention and visitors bureau. ''Economic impact is our primary reason for bringing BASS to Stockton We estimate the tournament will bring a minimum of $500,000 in economic impact to our city and, perhaps, up to $1.5 million.
''For us to bring an event that is televised on ESPN is a major accomplishment for the Sports Commission,'' he said. ''National television coverage does wonders for a positive image of not only downtown Stockton, but the entire Delta. We do not know who we might reach, how many might come here to fish or watch the tournament on television who will say Stockton looks like a pretty cool place.''
The Sports Commission raises more than $100,000 annually to allow it to bid on events and attract them to Stockton. To secure BASS, the commission had to pay $40,000 and provide another $5,000 in in-kind services such as rooms, meals and waivers of some city fees.
''It's pretty commonplace for the Sports Commission to pay upfront fees,'' Miller said. ''When we host the California Interscholastic Federation's state high school wrestling tournament that costs us about $30,000. But it isn't televised. Our job is to bring business here through hotels and restaurants and this fishing tournament guarantees it will bring people and their money.''
Miller said there is surprising heft to the BASS flock of anglers:
* More than 64 million people go fishing in the U.S. That's more than the combined total of golfers and tennis players and amounts to a $108 billion industry.
* More than 600,000 subscribe to Bassmaster magazine, the publication owned by BASS. Their median age is 45 years old and their average income is $63,342.
Like other niche sports, BASS hopes to convert grassroots anglers into television ratings. The Stockton tournament will be broadcast as a complete 60-minute program and be repeated on ESPN. Coverage includes graphics that reveal underwater topography and expanded camera placement that makes it more likely each show will feature big fish.
Stockton has already hosted two smaller BASS western invitationals in the past five years, sans television. Those events produced champion anglers that caught 15 black bass over three days that averaged greater than five pounds per fish. The April 1999 event on the Delta produced a 14-pound, 9-ounce black bass, the largest single fish ever caught at any BASS-sponsored tournament.
A unique aspect of the new BASS-ESPN organization is the tournament format. Two hundred anglers will fish April 3-4. However, when the event goes into its final stages -- on April 5-6 -- the field is reduced to just 12 anglers.
The reduced field will allow a camera boat to follow each angler -- so television producers can swtich from one angler to the next -- any time a fish is on the line. ''It's a concept made for television just like they are trying to do with NASCAR, the auto racing circuit,'' Miller said.
He said Citgo Petroleum Corporation expects a return of $2 in media value for every dollar it spends sponsoring the Bassmaster Tournament.
''We believe we're going to get great brand identity and exposure,'' said Phillip Thompson of Citgo.
To develop a local audience for the Stockton event and especially the afternoon weigh-in ceremonies, Miller and BASS intend to create a festival atmosphere with all sorts of booths, displays of boating and fishing equipment and casting contests for kids, trumped by a real incentive -- free admission.
''BASS is bringing in a $50,000 portable stage, perfect for television with sophisiticated cameras, lights and sound systems,'' Miller said. ''Around this venue and under the Weber Point canopy we will create a big, four-day outdoors show that even non-anglers will be attracted to see.''
When asked if he was a fisherman, Miller shrugged his shoulders and laughed saying, ''I don't fish but I have caught myself watching bass tournament weigh-ins on television.''
Miller's goal is straight-forward when he says, ''We want to make a very positive local economic impact and show the world, through television, that Stockton is the black bass fishing capitol of the west.''
Pete Ottesen covers the outdoors for The Record. Mail: P.O. Box 900, Stockton, CA 95201; Fax: 547-8187; E-mail: pottesen@recordnet.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BASS Fishing Tournament
* What: Citgo Bassmaster Tour
* When: April 3-6, 2003
* Where: Downtown Stockton at Morelli Park and Weber Point Events Center
* Who: 200 anglers who must qualify by competing at six previous events held in southern states of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Louisiana.
* Activities: Outdoors festival, kids casting contest, weigh-in ceremonies start at noon daily. Free admission.
