SKA folds citing Obama economy

[dawgaholic]

C&P'd from THT:

Dear Member,
After 23 years of successfully producing the Mercury Tournament Trail and of late the Yamaha Professional Kingfish Tour, management and the SKA Board of Directors have decided to shut down the trails. This wasn't an easy decision.

As most of you know our numbers have dwindled over the past four years and it's very hard in most areas to find enough events to make the trail competitive. Sponsors have been dropping out of saltwater fishing, cutting contract monies and advertising, and even end-of-the-year prizes. We all know how expensive our sport has become. Boats cost more, fuel prices are way up with no sign of relief, and our costs to operate have certainly increased.

Sometime in April we will be liquidating the assets. Trucks, trailers, and merchandise will be offered for sale. We will keep you posted on the date.

We have been actively looking for someone in the industry, a group, or an individual to purchase the SKA and bring new life and money into the sport but to no avail. In fact, some of our sponsors have even cut their sponsorship dollars further hindering our progress, which helped in our decision.

We will begin in April to return membership monies that we have received from members who elected to join early. We will deduct a portion of it for costs of the membership packet and mailing. We will also send letters immediately to all of the tournaments who relied on our sanction to bring fisher people to their events, which I'm sure will impact the sport. Events we have produced for philanthropic organizations will not be produced by us.

We certainly thank you for your support over the years. We fully understand how important the trail has been to you and your families over the years. We will certainly miss the lifestyle.

Good luck in your fishing endeavors.

-Jack

Jack Holmes
Managing Partner

904-819-0360

tht

[JETTYWOLF]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

HAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Maybe the King Mackerel can rebound with LESS of the larger females being taken out of the ocean every weekend.

It all started back in BUSH Era. IF ANYTHING.

Just like everything else.

WARS don't boost our economy any longer. That's ole thinking back to WWII. Thank the real demon. "peter Face Chaney"
Doesn't that make more sense, than blaming the "right now".

Dawg, don't be a Obama Blamer. it doesn't show well.

These "willy weekender" tournaments started dwindling years and years ago.

And these guys running the show wanted to live the high life, too. It was all about the MONEY!

[dawgaholic]

Maybe the King Mackerel can rebound with LESS of the larger females being taken out of the ocean every weekend.

It all started back in BUSH Era. IF ANYTHING.

Just like everything else.

WARS don't boost our economy any longer. That's ole thinking back to WWII. Thank the real demon. "peter Face Chaney"
Doesn't that make more sense, than blaming the "right now".

Dawg, don't be a Obama Blamer. it doesn't show well.

These "willy weekender" tournaments started dwindling years and years ago.

And these guys running the show wanted to live the high life, too. It was all about the MONEY!

SKA was a rich boy's sport that they milked until the cow got dry. No tears from me, just sharing what I read. But there is no denying the core reasons why they folded and it is a systemic symptom of the sorry state of our economy. The entire Convention/Trade Show industry is hanging by a proverbial thread as companies tighten their belts during this no-growth era. Didn't matter what the SKA rich boys spent as much as where it was spent, in the communities and businesses where the events where held.

But BO OWNS this economy and if the freight bidness don't get no better, Ima gonna lose my furniture!

[JETTYWOLF]

YEAH, but still.....the effects of a two wars, Chaney running the show, let's "spend,spend,spend" making the dirt people into civilized human's in the "sand donkey" countries started all of it. You'll never ever hear that from the talking heads. NEVER.

Inheritance of it all, is why you'd have to be sort of half baked to want to be President after such irresponsible actions, for 8 years in a row.

I give your "BO" credit for having the BALLS, to try and sort it all out.

And yes. I'm a INDEPENDENT!

[dawgaholic]

Not interested in a political debate but take the sum total of expenditures on Iraq & Afghanistan and they pale when compared to the $$$$ spent on Social programs and this Healthcare fiasco which is 1/6 the economy. Foreign affairs is a different animal, one that this idiot in office is totally unqualified to lead.

[welder]

Not interested in a political debate but take the sum total of expenditures on Iraq & Afghanistan and they pale when compared to the $$$$ spent on Social programs and this Healthcare fiasco which is 1/6 the economy. Foreign affairs is a different animal, one that this idiot in office is totally unqualified to lead.

This^^^^^^^Wins.

[JETTYWOLF]

THAT'S ^^^^^ BS.

[welder]

No, that's the truth, nobama is is an idiot and I think mooshell is a man.

"Socialism works great, until you run out of other peoples money."

[JETTYWOLF]

Some day the Repubs, will get off the high horse mentality. They wouldn't be so bad if they weren't war mongers.
Social security checks, I guess are socialism too? That band wagon's wheels are about to fall off.
BIG RICK will straighten everything out next go round. If he can spell "go-round". Or "phone a friend" (George Bush) just incase, NOT!

They say the "shortest memories" in the world, are the voting public.

[welder]

Oh yeah, SSI, that's that program that I have been paying into for the last 40 years to help me out when I retire but that aint going to happen because they [ the Gmen ] keep giving it to every swinging whoah the walks into the country and if they aren't giving it away they are stealing it blind.

obamacare, the new cash cow for the government.

I think we should disband the entire federal government, build a new military and let the States run there own business.
Bring all of our military home protect our own boarders and let the rest of the world police them selves.

[JETTYWOLF]