Six years after 'Cabela's debacle,' Sidney's lights are still on

Classifieds Directory About Contact Advertise

By Natalia Alamdari
Flatwater Free Press

Six years after 'Cabela's debacle,' Sidney's lights are still on

April 13, 2023

Fletcher Halfaker | Flatwater Free Press

Entrepreneurship • General Manager Zachary Lotton serves a drink and a smile at Boss City Brewing. The brewery is one of many Sidney small businesses started by former Cabela's employees in the years since the retail behemoth was swallowed by Bass Pro Shops, triggering the loss of 2,000 area jobs.

The forest green roof and pair of bronze stags frozen in combat are impossible to miss as you drive down Interstate 80.

So are the two corporate buildings – 550,000 square feet of nearly empty office space, long offered for a $1 a year lease.

The water tower looms overhead, painted in the same green, heralding what once was: "Cabela's World Headquarters, City of Sidney."

For 54 years, Cabela's made its home here, a juggernaut that kept the town humming. But in 2017, the sporting goods store sold for $5 billion to Bass Pro Shops – a takeover that eventually made 2,000 jobs vanish in a t...

For access to this article please sign in or subscribe.