I have not seen him all year . And guess I probably never will .

And according to some on here, all you have to do is catch dinks, which should be easy for everyone, especially KVD. I guess he forgot how to fish or maybe it’s takes more skill to win at MLF than some believe.

He will surely miss you Slim...

So they got paid to sign the contract? Man I hope so

70 Brett Hite $18,000
71 Cliff Crochet $12,000
72 Tommy Biffle $12,000 (has a business)
73 Brandon Coulter $24,000
74 Kelly Jordon $12,000
75 Shaw Grigsby $12,000
76 Roy Hawk $0
77 Britt Myers $0
78 Mike McClelland $0
79 Jason Lambert $0
80 Paul Elias $0

How much did the bottom 10 guys make on BASS? Bass entry fees are now $43,000/season, so deduct that from their earnings. How about FLW? Don't know what their entry fees are.

C'mon MagFluker.

Give us the bottom 10 from the other two tours so this is a fair comparison. I'll wait.

Some of them might only in the hole $19,500.00 by years end.

BASS only changed this after MLF BPT came along.

I don't think anyone said MLF is better/worse than the Elite series or FLW. OP just said how a few guys didn't earn any prize money. I don't understand how ya'll can watch the MLF or support it though. Big fish from RedCrest was a shade over 3 wasn't it? True dink fest

See the difference for me is that the pro MLF guys are making it seem like the grass is so much greener in MLF, but aside from no entry fees what did they actually change?

They changed the format which have turned some people off of watching the "best of the best", they didn't make it fan friendly (did you see the weigh ins in Waddington?) and it is not like they are paying for the anglers traveling expenses so those bottom 10 most likely lost money just like the bottom portion of the anglers did in the other 2 tours. I am not saying FLW and BASS are better then MLF in that regard, I am simply point out a flaw in the grass is greener argument.

Mark Jeffries used a great analogy in BTL today talking about Coca Cola and when they changed the formula of Coke. It created 2 sides either for or against the new Coke. Well, there was enough push back from the consumer that Coca Cola went back to the original formula of Coke and then remarketed it.

This, to me, is about on those same lines, MLF has turned some old the core BASS guys against them for some of their actions (the PITA commercial, the livewell comments, the MLF anglers not attending Expos amongst other things) and it will not turn out well for them IMO

The MLF format seems to be more interesting to people that aren't hardcore tournament anglers... I've seen this with my own eyes, kids and people I would never think would watch fishing seem interested in the MLF shows or will at least tolerate them. BASS caters more to the tournament angler, which is perfectly fine, but it lacks the drama throughout the broadcast that draws in the non tournament angler to watch. The difference IMO is that MLF is expanding the exposure and sponsor opportunities by reaching people that the existing organizations have not been able to. So the "Old Core" BASS guys that are turned off to MLF really dont matter, its the people that will carry the sport after all those old timers are dead and gone that make the difference... and MLF is reaching that audience much more effectively than the other trails IMHO.

I'd also venture to say that the grass is indeed a little greener.. bottom 10 MLF guys were out traveling expenses, but bottom 10 BASS are out at least $19.5k plus travel expenses if what I read above is correct.

If you ask any of them they dont make money on winnings, they make money on being a salesman. In that regard MLF sold them what they believe is their best opportunity of either changing that to where they dont have to worry about anything but fishing or making it a bigger payout for being a salesman. Neither of which can be judged until a year or two after they actually fish. So did they make money, did they lose money? We really dont know yet. I would venture to say the the MLF guys didnt only because every one was an established angler with sponsors and whatnot. That's not the case for some of the BASS rookies so they inherently have it tougher. The end game is what your after though, it takes money to make money so if BASS can provide a better platform for your "brand" then it will be better in the long run or MLF or FLW. Buda brings the biggest point, reaching people outside of the old faithful. That's the big draw supposedly but what is yet to be seen is if they really did drive off the old faithful did they get enough new viewers to offset that and create more. They have to create more new viewers because what do fishermen sell? Fishing stuff and people that arent into fishing dont buy fishing stuff. That's what could be the conundrum is finding that balance

Bottom of the barrel is still bottom of the barrel no matter how you slice it, losing money is still losing money, losing less money doesn't make a difference for me. Tournament fishing is still a gambling type career.

I'll concede that MLF is doing better for the anglers at the bottom due to no entry fees, but that't about it.

How about looking at the top 10 from each tour and the money made in gross earnings? Is that a better comparison? Pretty equal here and BASS still has 2 tournaments left in the year.

PLACE ANGLER MONEY
1 Bryan Thrift $399,800 FLW
2 Ott DeFoe $362,500 MLF ($300k from BASS)
3 Brandon Cobb $260,000 BASS
4 Jamie Hartman $253,500 BASS
5 Jacob Wheeler $246,100 MLF
6 Edwin Evers $215,850 MLF (not counting RedCrest)
7 Jeremy Lawyer $206,500 FLW
8 Terry Bolton, Jr. $202,500 FLW
9 John Cox $202,400 FLW and BASS
10 Micah Frazier $185,000 BASS
10 Stetson Blayloc $185,000 BASS
12 Buddy Gross $184,300 FLW and BASS
13 Brian Latimer $159,500 FLW
14 Jordan Lee $156,800 MLF
15 Jacob Powrozni $155,000 MLF
16 Andrew Upshaw $141,500 FLW
17 Andy Morgan $138,400 MLF
18 Casey Scanlon $135,200 FLW
19 Cliff Pace $134,600 MLF
20 Aaron Martens $134,000 MLF
21 Paul Mueller $133,500 BASS
22 Chris Zaldain $131,000 BASS
23 Rick Clunn $128,000 BASS
24 Dean Rojas $126,500 MLF
25 Jared Lintner $113,200 MLF and BASS
26 Scott Martin $107,250 FLW
27 Cory Johnston $105,000 BASS
28 Chris Johnston $104,500 BASS
28 Scott Canterburn $104,500 BASS
30 Joseph Webster $104,000 FLW

10 FLW
10 MLF (Ott wouldn't be if he didn't win the Classic)
10 BASS


Read more: http://www.bassfan.com/rankings_money.asp#ixzz5xjAgZNSl

Few of points to add to this.

First, they've already added new viewers as they've been around for years now. People were already enjoying the format both seasoned anglers and new anglers alike. This isn't a "new" angle or pitch for MLF, they built their platform on it.

Second, the MLF assets/deliverables for BPT haven't even fully deployed yet. Give the TV time to play out and you'll see the value the anglers moved for. The live events are maybe 1/10th of what the property offers the anglers and sponsors. It appears some here are confused about that but none of the anglers and decision makers at MLF are.

Lastly, MLF has only "lost" (and that's a loose term because they're still watching, logging in, checking the leaderboard and payouts and talking about it on social and forums) a small percentage of hard core anglers who may feel "disenfranchised" by BPT taking their favorite anglers away to an alternate format and so they're grumpy.

I think at some point as things continue to play out this will all settle in and both BASS and MLF will find their sweet spots and all will be well again in the competitive angling space.

Do yall do the viewership tracking for them? I only ask because you say that like you already know. I honestly dont know although somewhere somebody posted some numbers. My question is did they really add new viewers before bpt or was it still just fishermen that finally had a decent fishing show to watch so they tuned in? I know there are a bunch of just naysayers but it seems MLF has taken notice so that says maybe it's more than just a few that have lost interest. I'm one that doesnt watch anymore and it's not because of anything to do with all the moving and stuff, I just lost interest in it. Now I'm just one person but you seem to see more people saying the same as time goes. So you are right, we have yet to see where the real value of MLF is and I do think there is some there. Will it be what they sold to the anglers maybe, maybe more. I also agree it will settle out and everybody will find there spot

We do consulting work on the data/digital side, so yes we have visibility. As an organization MLF has full visibility to all of their numbers and regularly provide those insights to sponsors and partners. It's a smart group over there and they pay attention to all of it. You just have to be careful when you see negative comments and immediately assume that there's scale to that negativity. A lot of the initial reaction from the five fish faithful is understandable but that angst that they have or disdain, if you will, is going to subside over time. It simply has to as people come to grips with the fact that it's not going anywhere.

The anglers have a voice there and they are constantly evaluating, testing and learning. It's year one, that's why I don't get all the armchair quarterbacking. They'll continue to grow and evolve and get the right mix of everything. From my perspective they've done a solid job of getting the platform off the ground and headed in the right direction. Time will tell.