The Kansas Governor’s Ringneck Classic was designed to draw regional and national attention to hunting tourism in Kansas. “My top priority is to grow the state’s economy. Key to that is capitalizing on the competitive advantages our state has,” Brownback has stated. “Kansas is consistently ranked as one of the top three states in the country for pheasant hunting. This is an underutilized asset for our rural communities. If we do a better job telling folks about the quality of hunting available here in Kansas, we will pull more of those tourism dollars into Kansas.”
The Oakley community hosted reporters from Denver, Kansas City, Wichita, Topeka, Hays and Colby at the inaugural Ringneck Classic. In each case stories and photos were displayed in the various newspapers after the event. Publications in cities as far away as Seattle, Sacramento and St Louis picked up the story for their local papers in the weeks ensuing the Ringneck Classic held in November 2011.
“I’m tired of South Dakota getting all the credit for having great pheasants when ours are bigger, tougher, wilder and better to shoot at than theirs are,” Brownback joked. Oakley, Kansas will again join the Governor in hosting the 2012 Ringneck Classic this November.
