Difficult to take city's BBS stance
By JOHN SALAMONE Jasper

I just finished reading the article entitled "City may lose Big Bash Splash." It is not often that I read an article and then feel immediately compelled to refute the statements or content, but this one certainly qualifies. I find it difficult to accept that the City Manager, Mr. Grindstaff has completely done his homework on this event. Is the true measure of economic feasibility based on "little cards" placed in hotel rooms in hopes of creating a momentary lapse of ambivalence, thus spurring the guest to disclose why they are there in the first place? I understand that the procedure states that the Secretary will then follow up with telephone calls to find out "how many patrons were there for the event". I would certainly like to see the metrics used to gauge this survey.

Curiosity got the better of me on this one, so I conducted my own accurate, albeit unscientific survey. Unable to question every hotel/motel in town, I selected four hotels that I felt would represent an accurate depiction of the actual financial picture. I queried Best Western, Holiday Inn Express, Ramada Inn, and Bass Buster Inn. In EVERY case, the respondent stated that their hotels were completely full for at least three nights as a result of the Big Bass Splash. One of them even stated that they require a five night minimum stay during this tournament and have a long waiting list of customers wanting to utilize their facility. Based on this information, it is easy to assume at least a three-night stay per hotel. The subject hotels have 59, 65, 100, and 32 rooms respectively. On average, these hotels charge $70.00 per night, not including tax. Using the representative total of 256 rooms at $70.00 per night, we total $17,920.00 in revenue per night on just these four hotels. When you apply the tax rate of 13 percent to this figure you reach $2,329.60 in hotel/motel tax per night on just four hotels, or $582.40 per individual hotel. At last look, there are over twice the number of hotels used in this example listed in the Jasper telephone book. If we double the number of hotels to 8 and use the already established number of (at least) a three-night stay, you can extrapolate a number of $13,977.60 just in hotel/motel tax for this single event.

Next I called a few area restaurants to touch on the economic impact of the Big Bass Splash to their business. While I did not ask for, and did not receive any actual numbers I was told in every case that the tournament in question contributes significantly to the bottom line of the restaurant. Sherry Markovich of the Cedar Tree Restaurant in Jasper went so far as to say that the Big Bass Splash weekend is "By far the biggest weekend of the year." She added, "Losing this tournament will make a significant difference to our business. Every event is important to us, and we cater to a diverse set of customers, but this event clearly has the most impact on our business." Similar statements were given by every restaurant I contacted, with McDonalds even stating that they increase staffing requirements to meet the increased demand.

These are merely of couple of samples of the true impact of this tournament. I would encourage the current administration to conduct its own study to ascertain the actual numbers and apply them in the determination of who and what deserves funding. Mr. Grindstaff stated that he "can't control what he does, and I cannot be blackmailed by his threats to take it elsewhere if we don't give him his money." I don't believe Mr. Sealy is attempting to "blackmail" anyone. I think he is fed up with being held hostage by the people with whom he is negotiating and feeling as though he is being strong-armed into holding his event for substantially less money. I want to know how the city can justify spending $9,500.00 to fund a tournament that refuses to allow fishermen on the water for the entire week leading up to the tournament. The established off limits period allows for zero practice time prior to the tournament which results in zero dollars for the community. If the fishermen cannot be on the lake, why would they come a day or two early? A large percentage of the participants of this trail drive to the lake the morning of the tournament, and travel back home immediately upon the completion of the tournament, leaving nothing or next to nothing of a residual affect for the business owners and the city itself. I understand that this organization will bring 4-5 events to the lake and draw roughly 250 teams per event. I also understand that if I use the commutative properties of addition I can add the economic impact of all of the tournaments and still reach a balance of zero or nearly zero. Now please understand that I am not bashing this trail in any way, it a great tournament trail run by fantastic people, producing the best payback for the fishermen, and I enjoy fishing it myself. I am just looking for the rationalization.

I understand and expect that we will see a true dichotomy of opinions on this subject. Mr. Grindstaff is certainly entitled to his own opinion, but opinion should not make the difference in whether this tournament receives the funding it deserves. Two years ago, over 20,000 people walked through the gates of the Big Bass Splash. Do we have another event here that can boast those numbers? Why should we as a community allow another city to benefit from our homegrown event? Bob Sealy doesn't WANT to contract with another venue, he simply wants to be wanted at this one.

Mr. Grindstaff has taken the position that we do not have the money to pay for this event and the money needs to be spent elsewhere. Simply stated, we absolutely cannot afford NOT to pay for this event. The thought that a classic car show brings more revenue to the community and fills more rooms than this event is ludicrous at best. Please publish the results of the study that proved this to be true. The affects of this current decision could be long lasting and severe. I don't understand how the current staff can take such a myopic view of this situation and not look at the longterm ramifications of running the Big Bass Splash off to benefit another community.

I have no affiliation with Sealy Outdoors in any way, and stand to gain nothing from anything stated in this letter to the editor. I just put on paper what many others are talking about.