Mankato, Minn. --- Minnesota State Athletic Department officials have announced they will be discontinuing their involvement in organizing a mid-winter ice fishing contest that was designed to raise money for athletic scholarships.   

Originating in 2009, the "Big Bobber" was initially headquartered at Westwood Marina on Lake Washington.  More recently, the tournament had shifted to The Landing on Madison Lake.   City officials with Madison Lake have indicated they plan intend to take over coordinating the operation and are in the process of re-branding the annual event.

According to Minnesota State Director of Athletics Kevin Buisman, it was a difficult decision to go in another direction and discontinue involvement with the Big Bobber. "Undoubtedly, major fundraising events like this are an important priority, as we are becoming more and more dependent on generating revenues to support the scholarship budget.  On the other hand, weather and ice conditions can be a fickle issue influencing the success of an event like this."

"We put a lot of time and effort into organizing this event and I think we had to be realistic about how we measured our return on investment," Buisman continued.  "We have had to cancel it a few times because of ice conditions and have had others times where weather conditions have adversely impacted attendance.  The revenue stream just became too inconsistent and too unpredictable for us to continue."

Buisman added, "We have also had some staff turnover where three of the individuals most directly involved with planning and operating that event are no longer with the department.  That caused us to take a step back and re-evaluate things.   We will have to identify strategies to replace the revenue associated with that event and to best leverage the strengths of our newly-hired staff members.  We are confident in their abilities and look forward to retooling and refining our future revenue generation strategies."

Buisman concluded, "It was a good run with the Big Bobber.  It allowed us to reach a different market segment for fundraising and we had some great support and terrific partnerships over the years.  I would really like to thank the Big Bobber organizing committee, especially Al Dorn, who provided an unbelievable level of guidance and leadership over the years. We are also grateful to many outstanding corporate partners, such as Humminbird, Locher Brothers, and Proximo, who invested with us to make the event successful.  We will miss having the Big Bobber on our schedule and wish the City of Madison Lake all the best in their future leadership of the event." 

"Its been a huge honor to support Maverick Athletics and to work with Minnesota State on the Big Bobber over the years," said Dorn. "Many great friendships were established standing on those frozen lakes."

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