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Location: Berlin | I understood there would be repercussions with the announcement that our 2006 NTC tournament would be conducted the same weekend as the Escanaba, Mich., MWC event. Our selection of Pierre, S.D., to host the 2006 NTC event was made, in part, to take advantage of the community interest and involvement generated by the town’s Oahe Days festival. In order to create a true national-championship event, which includes providing as many spectators as possible for the anglers and sponsors, the only dates that would meet these needs were June 23 and 24.
The combination of these dates was not done maliciously, as we are title sponsor of the MWC, and would not want to take anything away from their success. I also knew there would be conflicts between MWC competitors who had qualified for the NTC. I regret having to ask them to choose between the events. Our qualifying requirements ask for the top anglers from each association, thus generating a championship format that features the top anglers from across the country competing against each other. When we lose a portion of these top anglers because of tournament conflict it takes away from our event as well.
Timing of NTC announcements has traditionally been later than what anglers and I would like. This is not done intentionally, but as with all Cabela’s business decisions, we must evaluate our participation and activation annually. The NTC is one of the largest marketing efforts we conduct internally, making the annual decision to continue conducting the NTC a business decision. I am doing all I can to expedite the selection of future dates and locations. Plans are in the works to announce the date and location for the 2007 NTC this summer.
Cabela’s invests heavily in supporting tournament anglers across the U.S., and we are sorry this scheduling conflict has happened. We don’t expect MWC to change their dates, which we approved months before being released to the public, or change their cancellation policies because of our NTC dates. Because we know this puts a huge burden on the teams that have qualified for the 2006 NTC, but have a conflict with the Cabela’s MWC Escanaba tournament, we are extending an option to move those teams’ NTC qualification status to the following year. You might be disappointed about not attending the 2006 NTC in Pierre, but at least you know your hard work earning a spot is not in vain, as we will award you a spot in 2007. And we will increase the number of MWC qualifying spots from 12 to 25 in order to make this work and not negatively affect the teams using MWC to qualify this year. We hope this accommodation will make it easier for teams to make the hard decisions at hand.
Eric Banks, Cabela’s NTC tournament director |
