Yes, however, I was on with an angler yesterday and this point came up and he said, "long gone are the days where I'm able to just be excited and have fun. This is about my livelihood, feeding my family and our future."

So while I know that all of them are thankful on some level, they're just as concerned about keeping their "business" profitable and staying afloat as any of us. No matter how much they win or how many sponsors they have, they know that they're only as good as their last season or last win and that nothing is guaranteed.

It' a tough racket and not nearly as glamours as it may seem...

Yeah I'm weighing all my options.

Eventually it can get like dfw, have about 10 different ones with 8 people fishing each one.

Yeah I'd have to agree on that, this basically is like, yeah we coulda done this but were too greedy to until our hand was forced. This would have me heading for the exits faster and tells me BASS is in DEFCON 1 right now

Can someone please post the cliff notes of the video on the site?

Just curious how much is/was the BASS entry fee per event 5k per angler give or take, and there are 100 plus anglers per event... 1/2 a mil, any sponsor money out there or will BASS keep that ? Just trying to do the math.. Looks to be a little greedy....

It's easy to be inflexible until you have to be. I would be happy they did it and at the same time see it would p*** me off. Not all these Elite guys are banking like the upper echelon of BASS. I still think your money guys may bail due to ownership in the tour but it's really hard to say which ones. This really helps out the guys that struggle to consistently make cuts and get into the money.

When you take a hobby you love to do and try to make it your livelihood the fun and excitement disappear real quick... except for those 25-30 guys out of 300 across both the trails that are actually getting rich off fishing, those dudes are having a ball! I disagree with only being as good as your last season, you checked on Pete Ponds lately? Dude hasn't had a top 10 since Carter was president and still has more sponsors than Steve Kennedy!

Not trying to sound negative... But this kind of seems like this is what MLF wanted and planned BASS on doing. Looking at it as pure business in the big leagues. BASS makes all these changes and investments to even have a next year. All those decisions affect the bottom line. How long can it last? Sounds like the commitment from BASS is for 2019 only. BASS hope is to save the season. With that said it shows BASS could have done more for anglers over the years. So the BIG $ (MLF), is just gonna do,what they do and wait. All these changes and we hear of no new REAL sponsors stepping up with BASS. It is a devaluing situation period. The longer they drag it out the lower their value to sell. If I was to speculate I see BASS sold within 30 months based on value of Classic and Live alone.
The guys I feel sorry for is the FLW guys that qualified for Elites. That is the move that would make me the most nervous

No matter what BASS does, Johnny Morris will have insight to all big sponsorship dollars that would go that way.
I bet the number of pros back in talks with Skeeter have doubled. Seems like Skeeter have react to have better platform as well

And yesterday I was listening to The Outdoor Scoreboard podcast. First rumor I�ve heard that JM could be buying Mercury, although I�ve been expecting it for 2 years now

I can�t imagine Anderson Media , the owner just giving up .

You're SOOO right on this one. I've had a ton of friends and family ask me if I ever want to fish for a living. Not only no but H3LL no!! Why would I want to take something I do for fun and relaxation with some competitive juices mixed in during a few tourneys and turn it into work?!?!?! Not to mention there are VERY few pros that make really good money...probably less than 20-30 total.

This was a dude in the top 20-30... he�d argue otherwise. Lol.

I know people who were once upon a time in the top 30 and after leaving the tour, next to never go fishing.