You just pumped me up to wanting this in any place i live at haha. Awesome idea.

_________________

I respectfully disagree with you.

When this project was first pitched, there were no stores in a huge radius from Buffalo. We were told that this would be a 'destination store' that would bring in visitors from all over the northeast. In 2004, they opened the Auburn store AND the Toronto store. These are specific areas that we were told people would come to Buffalo from BECAUSE of Bass Pro.

You said earlier :



My point in listing all those stores was that because Bass Pro opened those other locations, those customers you listed wouldn't bother to come to Buffalo because they had their own store more local to them. If I live in Albany, why would I drive past the Auburn store to come here? If I live in Ontario, am I going to deal with crossing the border to come to Buffalo, or just shoot up to Toronto and not deal with the hassle?

If Bass Pro didn't open those other two stores, I would have been more in favor of this project still moving forward. But, since they had already poached a lot of the potential customers with other stores (almost like they KNEW Buffalo was never going to fly), why spend all those public dollars to do it? Why give them $50M+ simply to draw people from Western New York?

I agree with you that there's a huge underserved market for hunters, fishermen, and outdoorsman. (I like the idea of a Cabellas.) I just want to point out that the areas you listed already have closer stores already open, so a Buffalo store would not be nearly that big a draw.

Bass Pro isn't going to be an ultimate destination either way. Yes, there is potential in marketing to the outdoorsmen, it definitely fits with this area well. But the notion that people are going to drive 4 or 5 hours just to visit a store is silly talk. Maybe some people will, but hardly enough to make a difference. Developing the outdoor aspects of the region could definitely work...but a Bass Pro in itself is not going to do it. It was really given too much hype and I feel if it ended up happening, the results would have been disappointing.

People do drive 4-5 hours and plan trips to Bass Pro shops. The larger ones are very much destination stores.

Just not when there are 3 of them inside a 3 hour radius.

You've brought up Cabela's a few times, but to my knowledge I can't think of a single store located anywhere near us. Where is the nearest Cabela's?

_________________
mechaphil

I feel obligated to point out how gross that Bass Pro in Auburn and the mall its in are.

The lighting is about half of what it needs to be, maybe worse. It's kind of like a strip club level of lighting. Auburn is a pretty disgusting city, so the people that are in there are pretty sketchy. Not a fun place to be at all.

Although you should also point out that Auburn is west of SYracuse so there goes some of your Rochester shoppers too.

_________________
Proud LGBTQQ Individual

i dunno about closest to buffalo, but i shop at one in wheeling WV.

EDIT- Thatone is the closest

_________________
PSA: I am an overly sarcastic person. If you take me at my word, then i will most likely anger and offend you.

I just looked it up and the closest Cabela's is in Hamburg, PA - 219 miles away from Buffalo. If Cabela's were to come here, the store would service half of Ontario (only Canadian Cabela's is in Manitoba, but there are other stores near the border across the province), half of New York, about 1/3 of Pennsylvania, and the northeastern corner of Ohio. It would also be the first and only Cabela's store in New York.

I thought about what Pat and Herr Squanto had said about being a destination re: Bass Pro and if Bass Pro truly would've been a destination, wouldn't a revolutionary new waterfront Cabela's be an even bigger destination? I mean, Cabela's is a bigger name than Bass Pro, isn't it?

_________________
mechaphil

I could see Cabela's being a fairly big draw but they are really geared towards outdoors men when bass pro is geared towards different groups. I like the idea of a gathering place like mentioned earlier but that is a little too big. A two story mall-like design similar to the one at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. What's going on with the weather museum? That would be a really big draw to Buffalo

_________________

um, i don't think so. they are pretty much the same thing, except cabelas is bigger and better. but not by a huge amount.

cabelas are also more like a museum at the same time. they get hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of mounts and aquariums and stuff. it is an experience to be in one.

I've gone to the Cabela's in Salt Lake and Wyoming as "destination stores".
It's definitely the type of thing you can take the family and spend the better part of a day.

But I would also say, they are more geared towards hunting than towards fishing (they have as much fishing as Bass pro, it's just that the emphasis is more on hunting / Camping).

The waterfront and sport fishing was why Bass pro made so much sense for the Area.

_________________
Hold my beer and watch this...

Well, the reason I'd think a Cabela's would work is it would be the first of its kind to feature the fishing first. Maybe have two levels - the first level would be fishing with access to the canal and a bit of the museum-y stuff (fishing related of course), whereas the top floor would be hunting and camping oriented with other taxidermied pieces. I think Cabela's would make a big to-do about a store on the waterfront with boat access, especially in an area nationally (if not world) renowned for its fishing.

_________________
mechaphil

they would do the same thing bass pro would, dude. maybe they are more free to switch things up or something. but i wouldn't expect a lot different. i would personally like a cabela's better because there are so few in the entire eastern region.

OK, but wouldn't that be all right? My consternation was originally unfounded, but since learning about the other stores that opened since our proposed Bass Pro, it doesn't sound like it wouldn't succeeded. But with the closest Cabela's being almost 220 miles away, wouldn't it work here?

_________________
mechaphil

It would work just as much as a Bass pro...but don't limit them to just 2 floors

For scale references, the Cabela's in Salt Lake and Wyoming both have their own exits from the highway.
We're talking massive.

_________________
Hold my beer and watch this...

Goddamn.

_________________
mechaphil

Honestly, this is the new way of doing busy anywhere. Huge corporations expect to get major money and tax breaks to build something or they walk. It's happening down where I live in Fredericksburg, Va. The company who owns and run the Kalahari Resorts are recieving 25 million dollars in bonds from the state and huge tax breaks from the city.

I'm not saying the Bass Pro was purposely screwing the pooch, but it's almost the norm now a days....

_________________

Now that I think of it, this Kalahari Resort may be perfect for the old Aud area. Just think, a huge indoor water park and hotel in one. Where you can go down a waterslide in a middle of a blizzard



http://www.kalahariresorts.com/

_________________

The wife wants to go the the Kalahari in Sandusky all the time. Too damn expensive for my taste.

(But then again, if Im in Sandusky, I'm going for Cedar Point, not for waterslides. :p )

Like Great Wolf, they are expensive but you have to look at what you get for that price. You get a waterpark with lodging in one price which can be used year round..... I really think it could be pretty profitable downtown, especially in the winter.

_________________