We loved them, they loved us.

That was the postscript to the 2006 bass fishing tournament that brought big bucks into Hartford.
The tournament folks said Hartford was great, Hartford folks said the fishing people were wonderful, and hey, y’all come back now, hear?

So they’ll be in Hot Springs, Arkansas for the 2008 tournament…because the city couldn’t figure out how to come up with a $75,000 “site fee” for the tournament’s organizers.
“Not in our budget,” says the Capital City Economic Development Authority (CCEDA).
“We don’t have that,” says Riverfront Recapture.

BUT HOT SPRINGS, ARKANSAS SURE DOES!

So the bottom line is that there was NO bottom line to get this tournament, that reportedly brought $2.6 million to the area, to return.

This is from the tournament organizer’s website:
"The Hot Springs Convention and Visitor’s Bureau seized the opportunity to host the 2008 All-American when unavoidable conflicts arose at the previously selected site in Hartford, Conn. Due to the conflict, Hartford opted to postpone hosting the All-American until a later date, leaving the door open for Hot Springs."

How diplomatic.

Little ol’ Hot Springs has its act together, while here, it’s all talk and no action, much like the Front St. project.
This is a picture from CCEDA’s website taken 4-and-a-half years ago. Minus the leaves on the trees, it could have been taken yesterday.
And funny, I just checked CCEDA’s website, and all references to the Front St. project seem to have vanished.

The Convention Center is lovely and the Marriott hotel is quite nice. The people who were in the fishing tournament said so.
But you might as well put a moat around them, because they’re on a landlocked island.
All that talk about retail, entertainment, and housing? That’s all it’s been. White noise.

And maybe, when that bass fishing tournament is held in Hot Springs on May 29-31, all of those people doing all of that talking can hang signs on their doors that say, “GONE FISHIN’.”