I listened to the Florida Fishing Radio live show this morning and it was packed with a lot of MLF news and informed speculation. They broke the news that Brian Latimer of the FLW pro series is moving to the BASS opens exclusively next year and has big sponsor going with him. It was also disclosed that they know of at least 5 - 6 “major” sponsors who are abandoning MLFLW and many others are reducing their roles with them significantly. From what was reported, it seems there are a bunch of anglers who are fishing the BPT that are losing long time sponsors too and are pissed about it. It seems like the wheels are starting to come off and MLF is a slow motion train wreck. The Kroenke affect?

See: https://youtu.be/hIoMjsELfZQ

Love BLat, good guy, wish him the best.

Jon are y'all close friends?

Boy you've jumped in here in a big way.

Here's the punchline AGAIN. Right now you don't have visibility to the new sponsors coming to MLF and FLW and/or those who are upgrading their sponsorship and investment in the platform(s). No one listens when I say this because I guess it's more fun to panic but let all of the dust settle on the transition and the new sponsorships that will be announced. They will be significant and it will be a net positive gain.

There will be some endemic brands reducing their roles and some increasing, there have already been new non-endemics sign on and there will be more to follow. In our world a lot of movement and budget commitments happen Nov, Dec and sometimes even into Jan. This isn't exclusive to MLF. It happens to all leagues, anglers and properties on a consistent basis. Sponsors move in and out and budgets and priorities change constantly.

Well, might as well throw in my $.02. From my guestimates from the beginning MLF hasnt been about personal sponsors. They be always wanted sponsors to go in on the whole deal and let MLF distribute the money thru payouts or whatever else they have. That coupled with the fact that sponsors recognize that these guys aren't having to pay entries. As a sponsor when an organization openly admits they want non endemics, will not show personal sponsors on the cops, etc, I would negotiate different contracts too. So I'm not surprised when the anglers are losing deals.

since real sponsors of pro fishing were cutting back beforehand could see sponsor dollars getting harder to get because of diluting the pro fishing world. before long you will have the five biggest fish at a real weighin the most fish you can catch in a certain time limit an so on you will have multiple championships like in wwe that 98% of the folks in the US could care less about.

I guess BLat is gonna hang with Martin a bit longer.

Those Opens are going to be loaded with talent.

I am not sure I would equate losing an big and significant endemic such as Rapala, and then as an example, it being replaced by a non-endemic such as Tide laundry detergent, as being considered a net positive gain. But isn’t it your job to spin numbers and statistics into a magical positives for your clients? I do understand how interpreting that kind of thing as such could be beneficial to a pitch deck to show other potential sponsors and it may even improve the bottom line for the stakeholders, but how it’s a net positive in the eye of the angler and fans of, i dunno. I guess everyone needs a soap to wash those jerseys!

On the other hand, how you can spin anglers losing sponsors as being a net positive at the end of the day is another matter, and I am sure there would be some who would beg to differ that it resulted in a gain for them personally. I do think I understand why the anglers who are fishing in the BPT and now FLW pro tours are losing those sponsors, but I will leave that for others to speculate about.

Whos paying you to post all the spam and combat Mark? Why cant you post your full name?

EVERYTHING out there is losing sponsors, Nascar, Drivers, teams you name it. Down to local dirt tracks, sanctioning bodies like IMCA Ump. Heck even event centers are losing their sponsors who paid for naming rights all over the USA... All of these place and entities are searching for NEW any form of sponsorship opportunities.



Jeff Joldersma

There's a lot to unpack here. First, nowhere in my previous statements did I say it was a strategy to replace endemics with non-endemics. There's obviously both across MLF, FLW and BASS and they're all important. No property wants to lose any sponsor regardless of their size. Secondly, we don't believe in magic and as far as I know, neither do our clients.

Now as to why Rapala would vacate one property or another or drop an angler to sponsor another, I can't really answer because I'm not privy to why they're making those decisions. As I mentioned, there's a lot of reasons why brands make strategic decisions/changes. Regardless it's not like the bait category is open at MLF. They have sponsors in that category. Again, that could possibly be a driver for Rapala's decisions but there's no reason for me to speculate on that. Simply too many factors to know for sure. I'll leave the negative prognostication to others.

I wouldn't ever spin an angler losing a sponsor as a positive at any point but it does happen and has happened in this world for decades. Anglers, properties, publishers, TV shows, podcasts, influencers, YouTubers and on and on compete daily for marketing dollars and that's always in play. Anglers specifically can benefit from the league they're aligned with or lose because of it. Again, that's nothing new. This is a part of the life for professional anglers. Now, how that impacts their individual business certainly varies by angler and depends a lot on their other sponsorships and their overall annual earnings before tournament payouts. So, of course, the loss of a sponsor can be catastrophic for some anglers if they don't have an established sponsor base and ability to podium. Life on the Serengeti isn't easy and isn't supposed to be. It takes a lot to win in todays world as a professional angler and that includes both on and off the water.

Point is MLF, FLW and BASS have all won and lost major sponsorships, as well as professional anglers, over the years and they all know how to navigate it. The good news about all of this is the market is going to decide the winners and losers, not you and me talking about it on a forum...

Good discussion.

No doubt! I have think many of these guys will up fishing the TNPFL too, they almost have too.

Not unless they change that name...

Kidding.

98% of us don’t care about WWE, but it’s worth $1 billion. Kind of goes to some of what Mark has been saying in all of these threads.

His numbers (allegedly, but I have no reason to not believe him) show one thing. People on the TFF, who aren’t privy to his data and believe they are the only people who watch fishing shows and support the sport, don’t like it, so it must be true that no bass anglers like it.

I don’t care for WWE and never have, but it’s worth $1 billion as an entity. That’s just a fact, even if I don’t get it and think it’s ridiculous. People here don’t care for the MLF model and prefer the best five and weigh in model, but believe that means no one else could like it or patronize it, either. That’s what Mark is trying to say, I think. Unfortunately, he can’t give the exact data (and I don’t think it would change any minds here anyway) and it seems a lot of guys here can’t grasp that it might succeed even though people here dislike it.

That doesn’t mean it can’t or won’t be successful. Plus, the TFF represents a small number of people who bass fish in the country, let alone the state.

This is my point and I know it's not popular.