Go Fish -- and spend some money while you're at it

By Dan Chapman

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

This week’s championship fishing tournament on Lake Lanier will kick millions of much-needed dollars into the recession-wracked Gwinnett and Hall county economies, organizers and state officials said Friday.

In the takes-money-to-make-money world of economic development, though, the Forrest Wood Cup didn’t come cheap. Tourney organizers say the so-called “Super Bowl of bass fishing” wouldn’t have alighted on Lake Lanier without a $30 million investment -- nearly two-thirds by state taxpayers -- in bass fishing.

Yet much of that money was used to build a fishing education and visitor center in mid-Georgia. The Go Fish Georgia Center, which opens in October, will also cost an additional $400,000 in salaries and operating costs this year, at a time when teachers are being laid off and services are being cut.

In addition, the state paid a $300,000 sponsorship fee to FLW Outdoors, the company that runs the tournament.

A spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue said Friday the Forrest Wood Cup proves the investment was worth it.

“This tournament is the exact thing we thought Georgia could get and (shows) the success of what we set out to do,” Bert Brantley said.

Alan Essig, executive director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said a $30 million economic-development investment may be prudent -- in good economic times.

“Whether this particular investment makes sense or not is an open question,” he said. “But the timing of Go Fish was horrible (because) the economy fell apart shortly after and we had a budget crisis.”

Perdue was ridiculed for pushing a small-bore fishing program when he introduced Go Fish during his 2007 State of the State address to the General Assembly. The governor, a fisherman, was dismayed that major tournaments, with their considerable economic impact and TV exposure, skipped Georgia. He also wanted to boost angling among Georgians.

In 1999, the state issued about 840,000 fishing licenses, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. A decade later, only 690,000 were issued.

Perdue visited the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center, with its visitor center, hatchery, aquaria and public fishing pond, in April 2007 and wanted Georgia to have one of its own.

The legislature paired $19 million in state money with $11 million in local money, donations and grants to build the fishing center in Perry, near Perdue’s hometown, and to upgrade boating ramps at 18 lakes and rivers around Georgia.

Laurel Park, at the north end of Lake Lanier, got a $1.1 million makeover including another four-lane boat ramp, restrooms, a parking lot and fish weigh-in amphitheater. (State taxpayers covered 40 percent of that amount.) FLW Outdoors credited the new amenities for luring its major tournament.

“Bringing this tournament to Georgia is exactly what I envisioned for the mega-ramps we are building as part of Go Fish,” Perdue said when the Forrest Wood Cup was announced in December 2008.

Seventy-eight professional anglers zipped out of Laurel Park at 7 a.m. Friday in search of the fattest bass. Most of the activity then shifted 30 miles southward to the Gwinnett Center for the tournament’s fishing expo. At 5 p.m., the fishermen weighed their fish in front of a boisterous, emcee-fueled crowd of about 500 hundred.

Fishing, though, is serious business. The tournament’s top prize: $500,000. (It was $1 million two years ago.) Gwinnett and Hall county businesses, and the state of Georgia, could reap as much as $30 million, according to the state.

A more exacting breakdown, though, comes from the tournament’s marketing firm. DNR provided a memo from FLW that put the four-day tournament’s total economic impact at $23.2 million.

It suggests that 1,311 people – anglers, family members, FLW staff, sponsors’ reps, media and others – will attend the tournament. They will directly spend $8.8 million eating, sleeping and shopping. Indirectly, they will generate almost $15 million more as their dollars pass through the local economy, via the so-called multiplier effect, and free, nationwide TV exposure.

It’s all but impossible, though, to get an accurate, unbiased tally of economic impact.

“Any kind of analysis coming from an industry I tend to take with a grain of salt,” said Essig, the nonpartisan budget director. “We need an impartial econometric look at whether these things are worth the (upfront) money or not.”

Business, anecdotally, was OK on Friday. Only a few of the 143 rooms at the Holiday Inn, alongside the Gwinnett Arena, where many of the sponsors and staffers are staying, were available for the weekend. Maisha’s Store, a gas station near Laurel Park, estimated a 10 percent increase in sales Friday morning.

“We’re privileged to have something come that close to us because people never come to Gainesville,” said Gloria Howard, working the counter. “I’ve had people come in from Arkansas and all over. I think we’re going to be busy this weekend.”

In addition to the Go Fish millions, the state of Georgia paid $300,000 to FLW Outdoors for the right to host the tournament, according to a DNR spokeswoman. (The Lake Lanier Islands Development Authority added $100,000.)

Roughly $400,000 is how much it will take – in federal tax dollars – to pay six salaries for the Go Fish Center’s first year of operations. They’ll run the fish hatchery, aquarium and movie theater, educate school kids and maintain the nature trail among other duties.

The Perry facility, off Interstate 75 and alongside the state’s fairgrounds, expects 75,000 visitors a year. The Houston County Development Authority predicts a $6.3 million annual economic impact.

State taxpayers borrowed $14 million to build the Go Fish Center. They’ll spend $1.2 million annually on debt service for the bonds through the mid-2020s.

The Texas Fisheries center cost $18 million – and was built without state money, according to director Allen Forshage. About $14 million came from the same federal kitty Georgia is tapping for its operational costs. The city of Athens Texas, where the fish center is located, covered the rest. Texas Fisheries averages 60,000 visitors a year.