Long time lurker, first time poster... as you can see.
To clear up any speculation, St. Croix is not discontinuing Avid. I will not go into any great detail over the plans for the series, however, I witnessed a lot of speculation to the point I need to step in.
I will add that Avid casting rods were retired. As any good Packer fan knows (or Buccaneer), just like NFL quarterbacks, things can come back from retirement after a period of time and in some cases better than ever!