Thursday, August 07, 2003

Bass Pro Stores are apparently the best thing in the world for outdoor types and people into fishing and water stuff, so much so that these huge stores become tourist attractions in themselves. Individually designed to reflect their surroundings, these stores become big draws for people miles away. And Buffalo was in the running to land the first one in the Northeast United States. The idea was to put the new Bass Pro store in the currently vacant Memorial Auditorium (the former home of the Sabres), thus creating some new retail space in downtown Buffalo that would actually attract people to spend money.

But, Buffalo couldn't come up with a plan to make it work, and they are too entranced at the idea of having a damned casino in downtown or on the waterfront (along with an 18-hole golf course, just a peachy idea for an urban waterfront), so they allowed the Bass Pro store idea to fall by the wayside. Now it's going to be built in Auburn, which is about twenty miles from Syracuse.

Way to go, Buffalo. Never go with a good idea when a bad idea will do, at twice the price.

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