Cabela’s Is Here and People Are Pumped
People lined up outside the new Cabela’s store in League City on Thursday morning.
Cabela’s isn’t one to be outdone. The sporting goods retailer’s first store in the Houston area opened its doors today in League City with four days of events, giveaways and exhibitions—alligator petting included.
With festivities kicked off by an arrow shot that cut the opening ribbon, Cabela’s is offering an archery range, a BB gun range courtesy of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and live reptiles from the Armand Bayou Nature Center, plus knot-tying lessons and a mock rescue from Texas Search and Rescue throughout the weekend, not to mention a ton of giveaways.
The most notable feature is the faux mountain rising in the back of the store.
The League City location marks the Nebraska retailer’s sixth Texas store and entry into the Houston market, something the brand’s enthusiastic fan base has been awaiting for years. With nearly 80 stores across the United States and Canada, Cabela’s claims the title as “the largest mail-order, retail and Internet outdoor outfitter in the world.” The new location will include all the Cabela’s staples—firearms, camping equipment, hunting paraphernalia and more— but the store’s proximity to Galveston and the Gulf Coast required a larger than usual selection for fishermen.
The 72,000-square-foot store has seven aisles of fishing equipment and paraphernalia, from casual use rods and tackles to industrial equipment. According to Leah Webb, marketing manager with the League City Cabela’s, this location also boasts the largest gun counter of any Cabela’s, a plus for any Texan wanting to get good use out of their shiny new concealed-handgun license. The store will offer classes on gun safety, buying your first gun and fishing starting in April.
Webb says Cabela’s will differentiate itself locally from Houston mainstay Academy Sports and Outdoors by providing a “destination shopping experience.” That includes a saltwater fish aquarium, a deli that serves bison and elk burgers, and the pièce de résistence, a gigantic faux indoor mountain rising within the hunting lodge-inspired structure with taxidermied animals placed on it to replicate the feel of visiting Big Bend.