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Both developments hope to use tax increment financing to build the infrastructure and anchor stores. Both hope to get voter approval for their TIFs on the April 23 ballot.

In Denham Springs, the state will commit only 2% of the 6% sales tax TIF Bass Pro wants, so the city will need partners. The city wants the sheriff, parish government and school board to ask voters to rededicate some sales taxes.

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Down in Gonzales, Cabela's is asking for only a 3% TIF, so the locals need to come up with % to match the state's share. If need be, the City of Gonzales could cover that itself through its 2% sales tax.

Even if the votes succeed, future court decisions could further trim TIFs. But the developers are pushing ahead.

This is more than just a race for the TIF. Whichever store opens first will have the edge on defining its brand in the Baton Rouge market, key in a business where customers are fanatically loyal. But while nailing down market share is an essential means to both companies, their ends diverge.

Bricks, clicks, catalogues

Cabela's and Bass Pro are what retail analyst Jack Plunkett calls "showcase" stores. Unlike Wal-Mart or Target, which wring revenue from every square inch, half or more of the square footage in the typical Cabela's or Bass Pro is devoted to non-revenue generating entertainment.

Gun libraries, aquariums stocked with native sport fish, running waterfalls, elaborate dioramas with taxidermy trophy animals--enough of a show for travel guides to note that the companies' original flagship stores do not charge admission.

The connoisseur will be able to tell that the companies differ in spirit. Plunkett notes that Bass Pro is known for its emphasis on fishing, particularly on boating, and unlike its rival it has its own line of fishing boats. Cabela's has its heart in the Plains, where lakes are few and fishing is best done with one's feet on the ground.

There are deeper differences. Although both companies have their roots in mail order catalogues, they grew along different trajectories, and the result is two very different operations. Bass Pro wants its stores to make money. Cabela's wants them to feed its catalogue business.

Bass Pro's first showcase store opened in Springfield, Mo., in 1981. The company soon started expanding through the Southeast.

Cabela's did not open its first big store, in Sidney, Neb., until several years later. Its physical growth only began in earnest in the late 1990s.

The Cabela's catalogue remains the core business even amidst a rapid bricks-and-mortar expansion. SEC filings show that only 34% of the company's merchandising revenues came from store sales in 2004.

In 2003, of the 40 million visitors Cabela's says came through its stores, only 6 million bought anything. Those numbers would be unthinkable for Wal-Mart or Target, where every browser is a buyer.

Bass Pro does not release sales numbers, but Kevin Foll, who follows Cabela's for Next Generation Equity Research, says it is reasonable to assume Bass Pro's revenues are much more bricks-and-mortar driven than Cabela's.

Bass Pro spokesman Larry Whiteley will only say that both parts of its business are "real big."

The prevalence of online and catalogue sales at Cabela's puts its stores in a curious position. During the 1990s, well into Bass Pro's retail expansion across the South, Cabela's lone Nebraska spot was essentially a grandiose ad for the Cabela's catalogue, like a Niketown or an Apple Store. Selling stuff was fine, but the real goal was to create buzz for the brand.

It was not until 1998, when the company opened its second showcase store, in Owatonna, Minn., that Cabela's really began to grasp the potential of its stores.

"Catalogue sales increase where our stores open," says Cabela's spokesman David Draper. He says that after Cabela's opened a store outside Detroit, catalogue sales rose in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.

By 2003, the companies were fairly evenly matched despite their differing core businesses. Cabela's grossed $ billion in 2003, and Plunkett says Bass Pro did $ billion. (According to SEC filings, Cabela's 2004 revenue rose to $ billion, but privately-held Bass Pro does not publicize numbers, and Plunkett has yet to release 2004 estimates.)

If Cabela's is to continue increasing catalogue sales, it needs to grow the brand nationally. "We've always been in the Midwest," Draper says. "But people in the South don't know Cabela's like people in the Midwest do."

Draper says increasing market share was the impetus behind taking the company public. Cabela's raised a quick $114 million with its IPO in 2004.

So now the two are grappling to secure market share. Bass Pro has 22 stores open and 15 in development. Cabela's has 10 stores with another seven in the pipeline.

And that is where Baton Rouge fits in. Of the seven proposed new Cabela's locations, only one--Minneapolis--is in a region that Cabela's already dominates. Stores for Salt Lake City, Denver and New Jersey would be untouched markets, while proposed locations for Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin and Baton Rouge are firmly on Bass Pro's turf.

Big enough for the two of them?

Metro Baton Rouge, with 600,000-some people, seems an unlikely place to have both stores.

Only metro Detroit has both, but soon Dallas-Ft. Worth, Kansas City and Denver will join that list. Dallas and Atlanta, meanwhile, will soon each have two Bass Pros. Of the cities that will have multiple stores, Kansas City is the smallest at million people. The others average million--the entire population of Louisiana.

Even adding in New Orleans' million people, southeast Louisiana remains a modest market.

And the region will soon be saturated. If Bass Pro completes all of its planned Gulf South locations, there will soon be six outdoor megastores inside a six-hour drive of Baton Rouge--not including the new Bass Pro and Cabela's here.

Foll says the increasing abundance of destination stores cuts into each store's own appeal. Particularly in Bass Pro's case, he says, "the biggest risk they face is increased competition from their own stores."

Whiteley says Bass Pros typically pull customers from about a six-hour drive.

But Plunkett thinks Bass Pro is limiting its capture area by putting its stores so close together. "People will drive two-and-a-half hours to get to a Baton Rouge store, but not six," he says.

Whiteley contends more Bass Pro stores create more Bass Pro customers. He offers the example of Bass Pro's original Springfield store. Since it opened, Bass Pro has added several locations within a few hours' drive, but visits to Springfield have risen. Whiteley says the new stores have also done well.

Cabela's is not worried about the market being oversaturated, Draper says. It is counting on its distinctive brand.

"Our customers will drive by 10 Bass Pros to get to a Cabela's," he boasts. "This is the Cabela's for the entire Southeast. Can Bass Pro support all those stores? I don't know. But we can certainly support one Cabela's."

So, might one of the competitors be bluffing about Baton Rouge, hoping the other will back off?

"That's not a stupid question," Plunkett says. But he doubts it. "Companies will battle to the death for market share. The only way to win is to grow, even if sometimes locations fail."

Foll believes this kind of thinking leads to overbuilding. "Nobody is looking down the road two years to what the overlap will look like," he says.

But both stores insist they have enough market here to make it, even with the other's competition. Plunkett says each obviously thinks there are enough desirable customers in the Baton Rouge area.

"But I'd be a little nervous if I were one or the other of them," he says. "You'll have two players in Baton Rouge. But there may only be one winner."

The matchup

Cabela's[c] Cabela's Bass Pro

Founded 1961 1970
First "destination" store 1987 1981
Revenue (2003) $ billion $ billion
Ownership NYSE-traded since '04 private
Number of stores 10 existing, 7 planned 22 existing, 10
 planned
Price tendencies higher end value pricing
Tagline "World's Foremost Outdoor "World's
 Store" Greatest
 Outfitter"
No. 1 tourist attraction in Nebraska Missouri

Sources: Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's, Plunkett's Retail Industry Almanac

Comparing the plans

 "Sportsman's Park" "Lakefront Centre"

Anchor 175,000 . Cabela's 150,000 . Bass
 Pro
Location 1-10 and La. 30 in 1-12 and Range in
 Gonzales Denham Springs
Additional commercial space 225,000 square feet 350,000 square feet
Total acreage 98 75
TIF amount 3% 6%
Bonds $50-$55 million $50 million
Size of lake 17 acres 6 acres

Sources: Bass Pro, Cabela's, E. Jacob Fakouri Construction, Thornton,
Harvison & Rhodes

RELATED ARTICLE: In the hunt

Two other aggressive big-box-format outdoor retailers lurk over the horizon--Minneapolis-based Gander Mountain and Seattle-based REI.

Kevin Foll of Next Generation Equity Research thinks they both pose a threat to Cabela's and Bass Pro. Gander and REI operate smaller stores than the typical Cabela's or Bass Pro, at about 70,000 square feet. They forgo museum-style attractions, instead concentrating on simply selling merchandise.

"Smaller formats make a lot more sense," Foll says. He says retailers like Gander and REI are more nimble and flexible. "They don't have to put all their eggs in one basket."

To be sure, no one drives six hours to shop Gander or REI. But by attracting local customers who need a piece of equipment without a lot of hassle, either could sap the Cabela's/Bass Pro market.

Gander and REI each have more than 70 stores, and both are opening five to 10 per year. Gander went public in 2004 and has been expanding from the Upper Midwest into new markets. It skews rod-and-rifle. Member-owned REI caters more to the kayaking-and-backpacking crowd and already has stores in every region but the South.

Gander and REI have recently expanded into Texas, but neither has announced any stores here. Neither company's spokespeople could comment on whether future plans include Louisiana.

RELATED ARTICLE: NOT WITH MY TAXES

Local businesses oppose diverting taxes to help corporate giants compete with them.

Sam Kimbrough got no tax breaks when he bought Thomas Marine in Gonzales in January, and he wasn't asking for any.

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"I financed this business, I pay for the building," says Kimbrough, whose 50-year-old boat dealership sells high-end sport, pontoon and fishing boats. "I don't think my own tax dollars should put anyone in competition with me."

It was bad enough when local outdoors stores faced the prospect of industry giant Bass Pro Shops opening in Denham Springs. Now Bass Pro rival Cabela's plans to set up shop in Gonzales.

Both are relying on government help. Elected officials in Ascension and Livingston parishes want to give the companies handsome sales tax breaks worth tens of millions of dollars to help build the stores. Job creation is their rally cry.

Local storeowners insist they're not cowed by the thought of competition, saying they will find a niche with services or merchandise that the big boys don't offer. Yet in the same breath they talk about jobs--not positions being created, but those snuffed out as smaller stores fall victim to the national chains.

Kimbrough employs eight people and stocks 150 boats at his Airline Highway dealership. He left behind a career in construction when he bought the boat dealership from insurance company owner Kent Melancon. Giving tax incentives to an outside businesses to come in and compete with him is unfair, he says.

After a recent state Supreme Court ruling, plans to use tax increment financing, or TIFs, for Cabela's and Bass Pro must be put before voters for approval. Kimbrough welcomes that development.

"I think they'll vote against it," he says. "Our schools need money, our police departments need money, and we're going to give a company money? I just don't think it will pass. I might be wrong there, but everyone I've talked to is against it."

David Reynerson is general manager of 3-year-old Bowie Outfitters and owns Reynerson's Gunsmith. As he sees it, while his Baton Rouge businesses have long supported local causes ranging from blood drives to Boy Scouts, two companies with no prior involvement with the community are the ones set to receive tax breaks.

"I wish they wouldn't give them our tax money," he says. "I think they ought to come with their own money if they come."

Dale Mathews, owner of the Backpacker in Baton Rouge, says Bass Pro and Cabela's will eat into some of the market he aims for. But that's the nature of competition--he just doesn't want to help fund his competitor.

"I can't see the philosophy of giving tax dollars to a competitor," Mathews says.

Economic development officials aren't looking at net economics based on the ramifications for other retail shops, he argues. "They're looking at gross economics: 'How much can we bring into this area?'"

Politicians see Bass Pro and Cabela's as trophies, Mathews says. And he notes that no economic development officials contacted him to find out how the two new stores would affect his fortunes.

"They found the answers they wanted to find. 'Hey, we'll create 300 new jobs out of this, it will be very visible right on expressway.'"

BY TOM