No more than 40 boats opens up a lot of lakes they could not fish before. With there being a BPS on Hubbard and one on Grapevine it would be cool if they had an event on either one of those lakes .

I'm starting a junior perch fishing competition at the park next year. I'll let you guys know what my YouTube channel will be.

I don�t know about everybody else but I�m not Gona be A fan of mlf or bpt or whatever it is I�d rather see a sack of big ones caught and weighed than a sack of 20 2 pounders

look no further than the growth rate of high school and college bass tournaments....more and more high schools are dropping football because kids are choosing not to play and fishing is a good venue to satisfy their competitive nature....not unusual in my area for there to be a high school tourney with over 100 boats in it.
in a few years those kids are gonna have wives and more children interested to tourney bass fishing....

television channels need programing 24 hours a day,365 days a year and there is a market for programming to fill those hours......I believe those 80 anglers had the foresight to follow the example of the PGA tour in which the golfers dictate the rules and the venue and more importantly,they receive the television,venue and sponsor income which they split among themselves instead of letting BASS or FLW take a percentage of the profits...

It will be interesting to see the boats they use.

Bassfan

Here is another pro's perspective. The thought about competing against the owners was interesting.

I think you are wrong on this for sure. My wife is a fair weather fisherman who's fished 4 tourneys with me but has never liked watching any fishing shows of any type until MLF started. She truly enjoys those shows and watches every one of them with me.

This one is the only one that really stood out to me.

Greg Hackney: "I've been very fortunate in my career to see some of the biggest changes that have happened in bass fishing and I truly believe this is the greatest opportunity I'm going to see in my lifetime. If there's any chance to take it mainstream, this is it."

I can remember a time, in a not so far away galaxy, when very few people watched Golf and very few people showed up to watch on the courses.

Then a young man came along named Tiger Woods and it changed the world of golf in ways that hadn't been seen since the late 60's and early 70's when Arnie's Army and Jack's Posse changed it.

I am not sure who the "Tiger" of the Bass Fishing World is or will be but if they find him (or her) the viewership will be changed "just us fishermen" to a whole new non-fishing group and possibly add more people to our fishing ranks.

Any time we can add large numbers of people to our Conservation efforts through hunting, fishing, and other outdoor adventures it is a good thing.

Of course the ones that made the move are gonna pump up the new venture, what else would they say?
And as far as tv, I don't think people plan their day around watching fishing like they would college football, super bowl, etc.
I don't get the "the guys were fed up with BASS" If that's the case, why did they stay? Were they forced to fish BASS? I know fishing
is what was paying their bills, but it's like any job..if you're that unhappy, go somewhere else.

I would be willing to bet the number of people that golf compared to the number of people who fish is 10 to 1.... maybe even higher. Yeah, Tiger definitely helped golf gain popularity among non-golfers, but I�d still bet something like 80% of PGA�s TV viewership plays golf or used to play golf. Most people I talk to about fishing that don�t fish think of fishing as �Sitting in a boat/on the bank with a beer in your hand watching a bobber�. We�re still a long ways from being where golf is IMO. But as a current fan, I�m thankful for more opportunities to watch the top level compete.

And also, in golf every shot matters, that�s why it�s a much better spectator sport and better for television. In fishing, it only matters when there�s a fish on the end of your line, making all the in between boring to a non-fishermen... or even someone who loves fishing.

I was a little skeptical at first but, like Hackney said, this has the best chance of taking fishing mainstream. Tournament fishing in it�s traditional state was only going so far. One reason is the fish care aspect. If this is as exciting as I think and easier to access than the pay per view MLF I think it�ll be a hit. This format in a best five would not be as interesting. (Although I think they should keep that stat and maybe give bonuses for heaviest five and big fish).

Kevin, I did a little google research. Approximately 60 million people participate in fishing in the U.S. Golf peaked around the year 2000 with 28.8 million golfers and has been in decline since. When I was in college (a long time ago) I remember recreation, park, and tourism class I had discussed participation of outdoor activities. If I remember correctly fishing was number one at the time. I think since then other activities have grown larger but, not because of a decline in fishing.

You would be wrong. The number of people watching may be higher but the number participating isn't and I'm not just talking about tournament angling.