Sorry adchunts, this was run up the pole on this board back in the fall. Everyones consensus was that we could charge a larger entry fee and make it mandatory. We bounced this off our major sponsor, Strike King, and we got their approval also. Most everyone at that time knew we needed to have an entry, reduce it to a lower number and lower prizes or eliminate the event in 2010. Thus all of you had a voice in this decision. The opinion was that a larger entry was not a detriment when the travel, room and board was already a factor. The amounts were even discussed. To give away three boats, the dinner and more we at the level we desire we had to do something and thus we went this direction. Plus we have lower sponsor participation the last two years, and two of our major sponsors have lower their participation, as have the minor sponsors. We scaled back some last year and we hope to actually open it up more in 2010.Please be sure to Thank Strike King though as they have remained loyal to this event through thick and thin! This year we have spoke to many people who are surprised that we intend on holding the Invitational in these times. No doubt JohnM17 is right about the situation. We started this season with what are recognized as 8 major bass boat builders by the OEM companies. Of those one ended production (Pro Craft), three went bankrupt under two separate bankruptcy filings for Wood Manufacturing (R) and Genmar Tennessee (St & Ch). The other three are Nitro, Skeeter, and Triton, leaving only half of us as we were. And we think there is still some shaking to happen in our industry yet. We are already working on 2011 also and we hope to surprise everyone with our direction for the future. Though for now we are set on 2010, and we hope to see all of you here on May 12th for the event! BCBLast edited by Bass Cat Boats on April 3rd, 2010, 1:26 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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