Grand situation becoming a fiasco (Grand trapshoot)

On Thursday night the ATA delegates voted to move the Grand American to one of two very weak choices to become the new home of the event that has been held every year in Vandalia for 80 years.

Those choices are: Sparta, Illinois, which is still as much out in the middle of nowhere as it was when shooters forced the board to reject it a year ago, and Las Vegas, which has just about the hottest climate in the U.S. all summer.

The shooters don't want to go to Sparta. It's as simple as that. Not all shooters are campers. Most like to stay in nice motels and eat at places without golden arches . . . and they don't want to have to drive for an hour or more every morning and night on two-lane roads to get to the Grand.

And if you have to advertise that you're located near a Wal-mart, how much can you really have to offer?

This is what the shooters told the delegates for two years, but, again, they were ignored.

Las Vegas is one of my favorite cities. It's fun to be there . . . in air conditioning. You can't walk down The Strip on a summer day unless you walk on the shady side of the street. Otherwise your feet will burn.

So, hold the Grand in October? How are you going to get kids out of school to go to Vegas to shoot in October? If the Grand is going to continue to attract youngsters — "the future of the sport" — it has to be held in the summer.

Also, so many shooters can afford only to drive to the Grand, not fly. Drive to Las Vegas from eastern Pennsylvania? (Most shooters live east of the Mississippi River.)

The delegates blew it big time by quickly eliminating Shelbyville, Ind., because they found out Thursday there would still be $5 million needed in grant money to keep the ATA out of debt.

What's $5 million? Sure, it's a lot to you and me . . . insurmountable, but not to a state, region or county that wants to attract the big bucks 10,000 or more people bring to the area for a 10-day trapshoot each year. That figure has been estimated at about $10 million annually.

Instead of eliminating Shelbyville, why didn't they continue to negotiate with that community for land they will be able to own, just like they are going to keep talking to Sparta and Las Vegas for land they must lease?

Shelbyville received a pledge of more than $2 million on Thursday from the gambling-rich town of Lawrenceburg, Ind.

There has to be more where that came from and there are other casino towns in the Hoosier state that might have chipped in, given time.

And then there is Ohio, Dayton and the Miami Valley, apparently content to let some other state and community come in and steal that annual economic gold pot from right under their rainbow.

They won't know what they had until it's too late and the trapshoot has moved out in a couple of years.

And if they think they can wait until the last minute to make a pitch, they're probably wrong.

There is more to the story, of course.
According to the following article, the ATA was attempting to use S-ville as leverage to armtwist the other potential host cities. Pure politics.
Yes, it's a lose-lose situation.

--Brewer

Friday, August 15, 2003

County rescinds offer to ATA at chaotic meeting in Ohio

By JOHN WALKER
1. jwalker@shelbynews.com

The trapshooters have shot down Shelby County.

Actually, according to Dan Theobald, executive director of the Shelby County Development Corp., and Sean Eberhart, president of the Shelby County Council, they shot themselves down.

Thursday night, the leadership of the Amateur Trapshooters Association, in what both Theobald and Eberhart described as a chaotic four-hour meeting at the club’s current headquarters in Vandalia, Ohio, tried to select a new site for the world’s largest trapshooting club.

The meeting was so disorganized, it is still unclear if the ATA leaders actually picked a new home for their group or not, Theobald said.

A site near Sparta, Ill., another near Las Vegas and one in Shelby County were on the table at Thursday’s meeting.

As the night wore on and Roberts Rules of Order, which are supposed to govern the conduct of such meetings, was thrown “out the window,” according to Theobald and Eberhart, the Shelby County delegation, which also included County Council members Kermit Paris and Bob Carmony, pulled the plug.

“We rescinded our offer,” Theobald said.

It became apparent, from what the trapshooters were saying, that they were intending to try to negotiate for a better deal from Illinois and Nevada and would use Shelby County as a fallback in case those negotiations failed, both he and Eberhart said.

No one felt Las Vegas was seriously in the running, Theobald said, so it really came down to Shelby County and Illinois, which was offering a package of about $10 million.

Shelby County did not have a hard dollar offer, though the city of Lawrenceburg, just this week, committed to putting up $2.1 million if the ATA chose to come here, Theobald noted.

What Shelby County did have was everything the ATA’s members said they wanted in a recent survey: Proximity to their current site in Vandalia, outside of Dayton; gun-friendly state laws, which Indiana has over Illinois; and ownership of the land where their new headquarters would be located.

“Lay both offers down side by side, we win. I’m flabbergasted,” Eberhart said.

Theobald praised the efforts of local officials from the city and the county, Democrats and Republicans, who worked together to try to bring the ATA to Shelby County. However, he expressed great disappointment in the way the ATA handled the negotiations.

Options to purchase the land for the local site, paid for by private individuals who have lost that money, run out Oct. 31 and likely would not be renewed, Theobald said.
While very disappointed, Eberhart said Shelby County could not have done anything differently to try to win the ATA.

“So we’re going to move on,” he said.

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