Sportsman show moving from Presque Isle to Otsego County
by Peter Jakey– Managing Editor
In an unprecedented decision by the Presque Isle County Tourism Council, the annual Northeast Michigan Sportsman?s Show in Onaway has been moved to downtown Gaylord. The show, which dubs itself as ?the only pre-Christmas shopping show in northern Michigan,? has been conducted in Onaway on the first weekend of December for the last 11 years. Onaway superintendent of schools Bob Szymoniak, who heard rumblings of the move early Tuesday, immediately contacted Sportsman Show event chairman Lewis Robinson, a board member of the Tourism Council, who was not aware of the decision until he checked an email.
When establishing the district calendar for the school year, the district has traditionally scheduled the Friday of the three-day show as a day off for students and staff, and scheduled other events around that weekend. Szymoniak said that day off would remain in place. At Tuesday?s board of education meeting, a motion to send the Tourism Council a bill for what it would cost them to use the facility failed. Instead, board members decided to pass another motion to send the organization a letter expressing their disappointment in the short notice, and their departure from the community.
ACCORDING TO Tourism Council chairperson Kris Sorgenfrei the move was due to declining support. ?Some of the major supporters have not re-upped for this year,? said Sorgenfrei. ?Attendance in Onaway has been getting less and less. So what the council decided to do is see if Gaylord might be a more viable venue. We had not had very many vendors. Even the ones from this county were not supporting it.? She said the show would be smaller than the one conducted in Onaway in past years. The times and dates will remain the same. ?There has been good support down there,? said Sorgenfrei. ?The vendors that said they would come are all quite pleased about going there.?
BOB SCHELL, an Onaway businessman and county commissioner, was surprised when the calls started coming into his business Tuesday. ?I can?t understand why Presque Isle County would hold a tourism show in Otsego County,? said Schell. ?It doesn?t seem to make much sense to me. I thought we were here to promote the businesses in the county here. I don?t know what good it will do to have it that far away from this county.?
Onaway motel owner Jessie Palmer said her business would feel an immediate impact. ?As a motel owner I?m usually booked for that weekend,? said Palmer. ?Now I can see I?m not going to be. It is going to be another flat weekend if we have no snow.? She added, ?It is jerking business out of our county.? When the show was just getting off the ground in the mid-1990s, it had been originally called the Presque Isle County Sportsman Show.
Joe Libby, former Tourism Council chairman, and co-founder of the Sportsman?s Show with Mike Modrzynski, said the original goals of the Tourism Council were to bring focus to Presque Isle County. ?We had a number of local vendors, and local producers of outdoor products to display their wares and bring attention to Presque Isle County,? said Libby. ?While the current Tourism Council?s goals may have changed, I never thought that the focus of the Spo
THE TOURISM Council made their decision late last week. Sorgenfrei was asked if she expected any kind of repercussions. ?I don?t know what people could do that?s worse than what they are already doing,? she said. ?I mean, we?ve had backlash after backlash, because of innuendos and stuff that?s been going on. When your own people don?t support you it becomes very difficult.? The Tourism Council is in the midst of a drive to generate advertising support for their annual tourism book.
Sorgenfrei said the mission of bringing tourism to Presque Isle County has not changed. ?It will still be for Presque Isle County Tourism Council activities. We can?t afford to lose money on everything we do, either. We?re just broadening our horizons a little bit,? said Sorgenfrei. ?For a business from Onaway to decide to be a part of the show in Gaylord — there certainly will be a larger opportunity to talk about the benefits of Presque Isle County.?