ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 19, 1997 TAG: 9701200093
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-8 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
The Ray Scott one-man tour is off.
Not off, as in Scott has climbed aboard his bus and is off to one of the 40-cities the tour was scheduled to visit.
The event has been canceled, or postponed, depending on which word you care to choose.
Only a few days before the first stop, which was to have been Indianapolis on Friday, Scott, the founder and president of the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, said the tour was being scuttled.
Never mind that it had been touted in Bassmaster Magazine and B.A.S.S. Times. Never mind that TV angler Orlando Wilson had promised swarms of bass fishermen would turn out to hear Scott reflect on how his 30-year-old organization helped develop a billion-dollar bass industry.
Never mind that supporters included Bass Pro Shops, Johnson Outboards, Lowrance Electronics, Motor Guide and Zebco/Quantum. Never mind that angling great Bill Dance had called the planned show ``the best deal in bass fishing in 1997.'' Never mind what was said on our Monday Outdoor page.
Word of the tour's fate came to us via Priority Mail, which contained a succinctly worded letter - brevity seldom has been one of Scott's virtues.
``This is a hard letter for me to write, because I have had such incredible support from everyone regarding my Ray Scott Live on Tour Show,'' he said. ``However, for a variety of reasons beyond my control I have decided to pull the plug on the tour - at least for now.''
What were those reasons?
After all, Scott had reserved 40 auditoriums, from New York to California. A special $45,000 set had been created for the tour. A producer, Stage One Productions Inc., was in place. A five-person crew had been hired.
The mention of bad weather came in a telephone conversation with Scott.
``I had been planning to do this in the wintertime, when nobody could go fishing,'' he said. ``I got people telling me I was nuts to try to tour the Northern part of the United States in the middle of snowy, icy weather.
``That coupled with another thing or two, namely a book I have coming. It is just a host of reasons. Something was telling me, `Don't do it now.' I wish I could give you a more logical reason, such as, `I was sick,' or `I had to have an operation.' It was one of those thing you do called `guts.'''
It was guts that gave birth to B.A.S.S. 30 years ago. Scott, then an insurance salesman, got the inspiration to organize bass anglers around a competitive fishing concept. From the idea emerged big-money tournaments, bass fishing on television, space-age angling equipment - an entire subculture spawned in the Deep South and now reaching all the way to Japan.
As for the tour, Scott said: ``I got into it with guts, but the more I heard and the more I thought about it, I said, `My God, what am I doing?' Things started saying, `Don't do it.' I have disappointed a lot of people, including my family and friends.''
Had poor ticket scale indicated Scott wasn't the draw that he and supporters had envisioned? Were the $18, $24.50, $50 prices too steep?
``Ticket sales were going about like they had been expected,'' Scott said. ``They had told me up front that it mostly would be gate sales. But we had some pretty doggone good advance sales, which surprised me.''
The tour had scheduled early-February stops in Richmond and in Greensboro, N.C.
``This is still something I want to do,'' Scott said. ``I would rather do it when I feel right about it.''
Scott said he will be using the time when he would have been on tour to write a book, with the working title of ``Bass Boss,'' which will tell much the same story the tour audiences would have heard.
``It is about the tale of the last 30 years,'' Scott said.
Don't expect any mention of the winter tour of 1997.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 linesby CNB