Duane Hicks
With a number of requests to make this year’s bass tournament a reality up for town council approval, the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship is intent on making the event viable this year—and beyond.
At a meeting between council and FFCBC directors last Thursday afternoon to discuss various requests for help, Mayor Roy Avis said it seems the town has been asked to get more and more involved in the bass tournament.
He wondered if this trend would continue.
“If you’re having trouble paying last year’s rent [on the arena], do you think the town would be foreseen as just propping up [the event] to try to keep it going, or do you see that it’s going to become a very viable . . . event this year and into the future?” Mayor Avis asked.
“It will be a viable event this year, bar none,” pledged FFCBC chair Gord Watson.
“I know our numbers at the start of the year are bad, but if you go through what we’ve done to eliminate those numbers . . . we will not be in a deficit like we were last year.
“We are doing our homework in every area,” he stressed.
Watson noted 82 teams have registered to date, and the FFCBC has secured enough sponsorship money to carry forth this year.
“It’s time for us to turn a positive corner because we do have all our ducks in a line now,” he remarked.
“The event will go ahead this year, it will be a successful event this year,” Watson vowed.
“And after dealing with all our accounts, and putting the right ducks in a row for this year, it’s definitely time to start putting a positive spin on the bass tournament.”
Emphasizing how much the FFCBC is trimming back this year, director Doug Cain said the board has cut the budget by about $75,000 ($45,000 of which would have been covered through a “Celebrate Ontario” grant).
Some cost reductions include:
•moving to one ice surface ($3,000);
•director travel ($200);
•high school scholarship ($1,000);
•Daytime Land ($3,000);
•sponsor meals ($1,000);
•special projects ($1,800);
•newspaper advertising ($4,000);
•radio advertising ($7,000);
•sound system ($5,000);
•entertainment ($44,000);
•security ($1,000);
•cleaning ($200);
•portable toilets ($2,700); and
•site phones ($300).
When asked about this year’s nighttime entertainment, both Watson and Cain said they will not exceed their budget.
A local band is booked for the Saturday night (July 23) while the FFCBC is looking for a reasonably-priced tribute act for the Friday night (July 22).
The Thursday night (July 21) will feature pre-recorded music while the FFCBC is in talks with the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce in hopes “Quest for the Best” will be held on the Wednesday night (July 20).
By the end of Thursday’s meeting, council seemed willing to meet most of the FFCBC’s requests this year.
But while on board with donating $5,000 to the FFCBC’s operating budget, council does not want to waive the $3,000 in rental fees for the Ice For Kids Arena.
Coun. Ken Perry said they cannot let the FFCBC rent the arena for free, then have the FFCBC turn around and charge the local Chamber of Commerce to use the same ice surface for its “Quest for the Best.”
“You’d hear it from me later, if you didn’t hear it from me now. I’d be nuts,” Coun. Perry noted.
“We can’t do that,” he stressed. “We can’t give you something for free so you can rent it out for us and give us nothing in return.”
Instead, the FFCBC will pursue an additional $3,000 in local initiatives grants through the Rainy River Future Development Corp. to apply to the arena rental fees.
The FFCBC and town also will work together to come up with an agreement for the board to pay back the town $6,100 in rental fees it still owes from last year—most likely over a three- to five-year period.
Other requests the town’s various executive committees are recommending council approve range from authorizing the use of two picnic tables on the site and painting lines in the AbitibiBowater wood yard to waiving launch fees for tournament competitors and volunteers during the tournament (but not before).
Council also is being recommended to provide and install chain link fencing to fence off the area north of the Ice For Kids Arena and east of the ’52 Canadians Arena.
All of the recommendations from the various executive committees will be subject to council’s final say at its next regular meeting on Monday night (April 25).
Change of venue?
While plans are in place for the bass tournament to take place at the Ice For Kids Arena again this year, the bass committee will consider relocating back to the Sorting Gap Marina for 2012.
At last Thursday’s meeting, Mayor Avis wondered—given policing costs have risen after moving the event to the arena—whether the board had considered moving it back to the Sorting Gap, adding he’s aware some people prefer the waterfront atmosphere.
Watson noted the board held a special meeting the previous week, at which time directors elected to keep the event at the arena for this year.
But he added after the tournament is over, the FFCBC will strike a committee to evaluate the pros and cons of returning to the Sorting Gap Marina in the future, where the tournament was held for its first 15 years of existence.
“The big reason that the tournament looked at not going back to the waterfront this year is that it took about two-and-a-half to three months just to get a budget together and slimmed down, and pricing and everything in place,” explained former FFCBC chair Jim Cumming, who now is recording secretary for the board.
“To go to an entirely new venue, and go through the whole exercise of creating a budget to make it happen and negotiations with all the potential suppliers, we couldn’t see how it could happen by the end of June,” he added.
“The timeframe is just too short at this point,” Cumming stressed.
