Governor meets with local officials

Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts returned to Sidney Tuesday, just days after appearing at Sidney’s Oktoberfest to announce Cheyenne County’s Cattle Friendly County designation and participating in the celebration’s opening ceremonies.

This visit, however, was more somber, coming the day after it was announced that Missouri-based outdoor retailer, Bass Pro Shops, had made an agreement to purchase competitor Cabela’s, based in Sidney.

Since November, when Elliott Management Corp., a New York investment firm, announced it had purchased a large amount of Cabela’s stock, Sidney has been on edge due to the speculation that Elliott would use its stake to force a sale.

With the sale becoming a reality with Monday’s announcement, there remains a certain amount of speculation in that the announcement indicated Bass Pro Shops’ intention might not be to close Cabela’s Sidney operations outright.

In the press release announcing the sale, a seeming window was left open for continuing Sidney operations on some level.

“Bass Pro Shops intends to continue to maintain important bases of operations in Sidney and Lincoln and hopes to continue the very favorable connections to those communities and the Cabela’s team members residing there,” the press release said.

It’s that apparent willingness to maintain at least some Nebraska operations that brought the governor to Sidney.

Rickets met with local leaders, extending the helping hand of state government in working toward easing the blow of the sale.

“Nebraskan’s have faced many challenges,” Ricketts told the Sun-Telegraph after Tuesday’s meeting. “We’ve faced natural and other disasters before, and we got through them working together. That’s how we’re going to get through this - by working together.”

Ricketts said in meeting with local leaders he outlined a plan to help reduce the effects of potential reductions to Sidney’s workforce by the Bass Pro acquisition. In fact, Ricketts’ plan is very much the opposite of facing a reduction.

“We want to present to Bass Pro why they should be expanding in Sidney,” Ricketts said. That plan includes demonstrating the strengths of Cabela’s employees and operation, and how they can be of great benefit as Bass Pro moves forward with its newly expanded company.

“There are a lot of assets in Sidney,” Ricketts said.

The governor said he spoke with Bass Pro Shops owner Johnny Morris Monday following the announcement, and found him to be receptive to the idea of including Nebraska operations in the Bass Pro picture.

“He was very keen on the idea of bringing Nebraskans into the partnership,” Ricketts said.

The governor said from here, state and local officials, including the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, will be forming a management team to work with Morris and Bass Pro.

There remains time for a potential solution. According to Security and Exchange Commission filings, closing of the sale won’t happen until sometime in the first half of 2017.

Also part of the Nebraska puzzle, while not affecting Sidney directly, was the sale of Cabela’s credit card operation, which was purchased by Capitol One.

In a previous statement, the governor said he was please with Capitol One’s apparent willingness to keep that operation, based in Lincoln, within Nebraska as well.