Bass Pro fishing for incentives nationwide

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- If you help them build it, Bass Pro Shops will come.<br/><br/>It's an approach that has brought one of the outdoor retailer's stores to Oklahoma, with a second on the way.

Monday, May 24th 2004, 5:38 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- If you help them build it, Bass Pro Shops will come.

It's an approach that has brought one of the outdoor retailer's stores to Oklahoma, with a second on the way. And it's happening all across the country. Cities are offering up millions of dollars in incentives to bring the gigantic stores that are also billed as an entertainment attraction.

Officials in Broken Arrow this week disclosed an incentives package totaling $24 million to lure a store from the Springfield, Mo.-based company to anchor a 65-acre development in the Tulsa suburb. Oklahoma City gave Bass Pro a similar deal for the store that opened in the Bricktown entertainment district in November.

Bass Pro Shops spokesman Larry Whiteley said there's good reason so many cities are interested enough to offer millions to get a store. He compares the rapid growth to that of the Hard Rock Cafe.

"It's a destination that brings people into the city from outside the city," Whiteley said. "It's almost like a cult, where people are buying T-shirts from every new store opening. It's a lot more than hunting and fishing. It's entertainment, it's conservation, it's a museum."

And building new stores -- like the ones to open this year in Auburn, N.Y.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Toronto; Harrisburg, Pa.; and Las Vegas -- doesn't seem to impact the original location.

"We thought at first, 'Will these stores take away from our Springfield store?"' Whiteley said. "We have 21 stores now, yet our Springfield store just had its best year ever."

So the company continues to expand.

Last week, voters in Garland, Texas, approved up to $23.7 million in general obligation bonds to lure a Bass Pro. In Buffalo, N.Y., Bass Pro is being offered $80 million in incentives to anchor a redevelopment of the city's empty municipal auditorium.

Whiteley said new locations in Alabama and Tennessee are also expected to include public funding.

But with so much public money being passed out, Bass Pro's expansion doesn't come without opposition.

A billboard in North Little Rock offers a hostile greeting to Bass Pro Shops, which will anchor a public-funded $80 million development.

"We'll welcome Bass Pro," the sign reads, "if they'll pay their own way."

One of the opposition leaders, Little Rock sporting goods retailer Marty Ward, said he admires Bass Pro Shops' tactics.

"They're going to get 50 stores for free," Ward said. "Think about it ... they could end up getting up to a trillion dollars from cities across America. They're on a very aggressive nationwide campaign, where they're promising towns the world."

The retailer has also faced challenges in Wichita, Kan., where plans are stalled to use $24 million in state bonds to build a Bass Pro location along the river and in Denham Springs, La., where critics tried unsuccessfully to stop a $50 million package aimed at Bass Pro.

The Oklahoma City proposal also brought opposition in the form of radio and print advertising campaigns.

But Whiteley said the Bricktown store now is an example of why the incentives are worthwhile. Plans for a multiscreen theater that had stalled for several years became a reality only after Bass Pro arrived. And Springfield, Mo., developer John Q. Hammons said the store was the reason he would build a $35 million Embassy Suites in the area.