One deer show comes to an end, another begins

For 33 years, the Minnesota Deer Classic was an iconic celebration of whitetail deer — the most popular game species in the state.

Attending the Twin Cities show was an annual tradition for thousands of hunters, who checked out new products, got tips from experts and gawked at hundreds of antlers brought there by fellow hunters.

But just four years after founder Hugh Price sold the show to the National Sports Center (NSC) in Blaine, the Deer Classic is dead.

"We've dropped it," said Barclay Kruse, NSC chief communications officer. "Attendance was stagnant and our venue was awkward for a show that size, because we have two different buildings and people had to walk outside between them."

Another factor, Kruse said, was the decision by Outdoor News, a weekly outdoor newspaper based in Plymouth, to launch its own deer show at the State Fair Coliseum, where the Deer Classic was held for decades. That came after the two sides couldn't reach an agreement on sale of the Deer Classic.

The Outdoor News Deer and Turkey Show (mndeershow.com) opened Friday and closes at 5 p.m. Sunday.

"Wisconsin and Iowa have big deer shows, and we thought Minnesota should have one, too," said Rob Drieslein, managing editor and president of Outdoor News.

Drieslein said Outdoor News launched the show before learning the NSC was dropping the Deer Classic.

"The stars kind of aligned for us," he said.

Wild turkey topics were added to the show because of the high interest in turkey hunting.

The demise of the Deer Classic is the end of an era but perhaps the beginning of another.

"Yes it is," said Price, 79, who launched the Deer Classic in 1982 at the old Minneapolis Armory. "You feel a little loss, but I'm trying not to dwell on that. I'm happy it will essentially carry on in the same format.

Price said attendance already was in decline when he sold the show. NSC officials expected 6,000 to 10,000 people. But after the move from the State Fairgrounds to Blaine, attendance fell from about 8,500 in 2013 to 4,200 last year.

"The show was not going to be growing, that was our prediction," Kruse said.

Plus there was high demand to rent the Sports Center's space for baseball, soccer and lacrosse training, he said.

Price said attendance at his show began to fall years ago because of changing times.

"The invasion of big box stores had a huge, huge affect on attendance and purchases at the show," he said. "The decline started when Cabela's opened in Owatonna."

"I think it will do great," he said.

Meanwhile, Kruse wouldn't say how much the NSC paid Price for the Deer Classic but said it would honor its contract with him.

"This won't put the NSC in financial distress; we had our best year financially last year," Kruse said. "We're very comfortable with this decision. We are an amateur sports facility, and this direction is more comfortable with our core mission."

The National Sports Center had tried to become a centerpiece of outdoor shows, adding the Deer Classic to a fall ice fishing show, a winter fishing show and a spring fly fishing expo.

Only the ice fishing show remains at the NSC, and it's uncertain whether that will be held next November, Kruse said. It attracted 5,100 people last November.

The state's largest fly-fishing show also is undergoing a transition. It won't be held at the National Sports Center next month but isn't dead.

The show, now called the Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo (greatwatersflyexpo.com), has been taken over by Trout Unlimited and will be held at Century College in White Bear Lake on March 18-20.

It was launched by the late Tom Helgeson of Minneapolis, a longtime conservationist, fly-fishing advocate and journalist who died in 2010.

His family continued the show after his death but decided recently to hand it off to Trout Unlimited.

"It was getting to be too much to do," said Helgeson's son, Baird, a Star Tribune editor. "Trout Unlimited is taking over the Expo, and it's a great fit. It carries on my dad's legacy."