I know some may crack jokes and think it has no impact, but this is a really sad event for me. I know a lot of us would love to live a dream and fish for a living, and its the same way for the Ladies. I always hoped more women would get involved in fishing. Just think how much better relationships would be if women wanted to go fishing more. Things seemed heading in that direction…..Untilo now. How would it feel to finally to live out a dream and have it yanked from under you and have to start over or just quit. Im not blaming the Organization, but i am Sad for the ladies who put thier heart and soul into thier passion.
Wow, does the FLW have a Ladies Division? Im sure the economy had a major impact on this. But it seems that BASS is either struggling alot more than we might imagine or even of thought of. Or that they are really focused on just the Elite Series. Since Ive been following basically since I joined this forum. Youve had the co-anglers deleted, the schedule shrunk, but yet the addition on a playoffs and now this. I just hope BASS is staying afloat and isnt hurting behind the scenes. And imo, if they want to promote the sport more. Then they need to get ESPN to give me tv coverage. There might not be a Elite series event every week, but there are opens in which some elites fish and there was the girls as well. They mentioned the additon of awarding a girl a spot in the classic but they gave it basically only one year. Because now even if this years girl wins the thing, its not going to help “her tour”. It could also be that ESPn is hurting for money and this is one spot to cut losses.
no, but if she wins, she has an auto birth into next years classic. Still, there are still 75+ Ladies on the boaters side and 75 on co-anglers who just had a dream crushed. Even if they have something in the future, you know how hard it will be for the ladies to get thier sponsors back.
Maybe the FLW will make a quick move to add it. If they are able to act quick enough most of these ladies should be able to retain their sponsor’s. Or so you’d think.
not sure, i just know i dont see them as just lady anglers, i see them as fellow anglers who share the same passion as i do. I hope something pops up soon so they all dont have a ruined season and 2010
It was sad and big loss for the sport. I think Tom Ricks may have pulled the plug to early though, he said there wasn’t a strong enough field but 75 boater and nonboaters is pretty strong to me. Especially with what I’m hearing is that BASS is having a hard time filling out the full 100 boat field for the elites and that some predict that about 10% might pull out before the end of the season for financial reasons. Hopefully BASS will see that it gets back into the mix in a year or two.
I can see Bass point in this, but they made adjustments to fix the others such as schedules. They didnt made adjustments here. Im thinking maybe lowering the entry fees a little may have drawn more women in who were on verge of going vs not going. with that comes a little smaller payout too, but something is better than nothing.
Stupid that they did that. Sadly it’s the good ole’ american dollar that made this decision in my opinion. BASS most likely wasn’t making any money here, and so they pull the plug. Selfish acts like this is what is turning off men and women to BASS. Hence qman’s comment on an estimated 10% angler loss by seasons end. BASS “ups” entry fees in a struggling economy rooting out the smaller, aspiring angler who isn’t globally commercialized. They are turning into a cash cow and their time is ticking to stay alive. FLW will reap the reward eventually if BASS’s track holds this course moving toward the future…mere speculation here, but my two cents on the topic. This decision really disappoints me….
Thats a intresting way of looking at it. I dont disagree with you at all, I sorta said the same thing about the $$$ side of it. What I find interesting is that NASCAR didnt grow into what it became(even though its on a decline as well)by just sticking with TNN and TBS. They branched out to bigger, national networks, and added more “insider” type shows. IMO, if BASS wants to grow into a true money making buisness, then ESPN needs to step up the program. Saturday and Sunday morning are typically a dead time zone for most if not all networks. Take advantage of this and create more shows, and coverage of more tournaments not just the Elite boys. During my time when I wasnt fishing several years back and probably around the time ESPN bought the rights to BASS. They had a full saturday schedule, create those shows again. Im sure that still most of the viewers that would watch those shows will be on the water during air time. However, there is now tivo and what not that I dont beleive existed during the first time frame. And Im bought positive tivo counts towards ratings, or why would every major sat. network offer such devises?
And if BASS does fold, do to the economy or whatever it maybe. Id hope someone would step up and purchase the franchise to keep it afloat. Id have no trouble if someone like the versus network stepped up and took over you know they’d have better coverage than ESPN. The same for the outdoor channel or anyone else. I think it could get very interesting if BASS was in major trouble and about to sink and FLW bought the rights to BASS and merged the 2. If that occured depending on how they went about it the new FLW/BASS Elite series very well could start the year off with the Classic and end it with the Forest Wood Cup to cap it off. Along with im sure many new rule changes and what nots. But personally if it came to that I dont think it would be the worst thing for the sport. Merge’s in pro sports have typically worked out very well. Look at how the NFL took off after the AFL and NFL merged. Something similar could happen like that, imagine the sport of professional bass fishing. Where you have 2 “leagues” the Bass Elites and the FLW Tour(maybe then called the FLW Tour Elites). At the end of the “regular season” you still have a BASS and FLW AOY but the top 8-10 of each “league” meet in a 4 super events(playoffs). To battle for a newly created AOY award creating the equivalent of a conference champion and a super bowl champion. Far fetched yea….but tell me that wouldnt be something you’d enjoy watching.
Great post Miller Time…excellent insight, and a wonderful idea. I’m betting there’s already been talks of a merger. Bass has had people jump ship to FLW, and it’s going to continue. The money in FLW is huge, and people will eventually go to the money, regardless of the history and prestige BASS represents. For the ultimate payoff, I believe BASS will eventually follow that money too in some shape or form. I’m just forecasting, I have no “inside information” or anything like that. Just looking from the outside in and predicting a fallout in years to come given what’s happened/changed in recent years and the rising support for the FLW Group. We’ll see in time if BASS can stand tall if they continue to separate themselves from the smaller aspiring, untapped talent that surely resides in North America - men & women alike. It’s not the same today as when Ike climbed the ranks. IMO, it’s more like a lottery. Trouble is, even if you buy a million tickets, your odds don’t change all that much.
This is very sad, and as terrible as it is, hey probably had to do it, money controls everything now, and even if they wanted to hold on to the wbt they probably couldnt have as it was losing money and if they arent careful they are going lose th elites to like you guys have been saying. The biggest thing they have to do is work on their public image. I mean pretty much everyone I have ever talked to about it, including people who like to fish themselves, visions it as a bunch of red necks out drowning worms and drinking beer all day. They really need to show people what they are all about and remove some of that negative image.
The ESPN article posted above says ” interested WBT anglers will be given every opportunity to register for BASS events they are eligible for.” So it sounds like the door is not completely slammed on former WBT anglers. My question is how realistic is it for those women to compete in BASS events? There are only so many tournament spots, and the sport is dominated by men, as proven during the Bassmaster Classic. So their opportunitys seem like a real long shot.
I have many of the same thoughts as you guys do but I have two thoughts that are worth looking at.
First that merger sounds like a winner to me; big dog eats up little dog.
And secondly everybody does not watch fishing shows on TV; So why not more exposure in the news papers; everyone takes a news paper.
Example if a silebrity gets devorced or is cheating on their spouse that is in every paper in the USA.
So Why don’t the news papers treat this as an example of restricting someones right (which is another big issue) and get all over the papers with what a raw deal these women are getting?
Niko
