And those numbers, those TV rating numbers.....they are huge! All that money being brought in by the non-endemic sponsors....Huge!


They were cocky and arrogant, that ended up biting them in the azz, simple as that. Their problem, was themselves.

dont see sponsor brands struggling with the boat sales numbers an you cant get a lot of marine products an tackle because of backorders the marine business is great they can blame who they want but it will get back to tournament fishermen fishing for a lot of their own money . if their struggling to get sponsor money now if the economy takes a hit it will be a lot worse.

All of the issues they are having are directly related to the economy tanking, which happened because it was shut down because of Covid-19. There is no other reason for the sponsorship money going away.. with out the pandemic, the economy was booming. You don't have to read any more into it than that. If and when the economy comes back, this problem will go away but a lot depends on the election.

Dang covid!

Many sponsors/brands knee jerked in March/April and made immediate reductions to anglers, leagues and event sponsorships. Ask around if you're not in the loop.

It happened VERY quickly and no one's back at the table handing that money back. Yes, the fishing category in general did better than expected in Q2 but that was really only ecomm for most brands and the retail side of their business slipped considerably and there are real supply chain issues across the board. Anglers may have bought up every bit of inventory that was already in-market but it doesn't mean things are well or fully recovered.

You can think Covid is overblown or a scam but the economic impact is real. Anglers and Leagues will feel this for a while and adjustments are being made across the board for all of them.

If you're in the middle of a new league start up, an acquisition of another league and then a global pandemic hits, you guys can do the math...

Final comment, both BASS and MLF are owned by billionaires who've been in business for decades. I think their chances of surviving this and knowing how to navigate it are pretty good.

It’s just business sense. Until Covid is under control (vaccine, mysteriously goes away, whatever it takes) businesses will be cautious. Of course there was a knee jerk reaction (that’s part of why there were 40 million unemployed - companies were cutting dead weight).

I get a lot of people hate MLF. I have no skin in the game, but it’s obvious to me that the drastic rule changes the last couple months are a result of the economy being shut down. If it turns out to be cover for a nefarious bait and switch ploy, Duckett would be the luckiest evil genius of all time to have a pandemic hit and economic shut down to blame it on.

The general public has been told that keeping fish in your livewell is wrong and bad conservation. We are also told that professional fisherman should not pay entry fees. The way I look at things when I tell someone something is right it's right all the time and when I tell somebody something is wrong it's wrong all the time what happens in the economy does not change what is right and what is wrong. So is it right to put fish in your livewell? Is it wrong for a professional anglers to pay entry fees?

Professional anglers tell you xyz product is the best product and it changes from year to year. Hard to believe them.

I’m not in the know just can see some public data. There is no doubt some sponsors are having issues but I don’t believe it’s to the scale that require BPT to amend its constitution. I thought Boyd’s statements on needing higher payouts via entry fees is telling because it shows the conversation was already being had.

It’s like watching the captain going down with the ship and telling everyone “don’t worry, help is coming”.

Both times!

When you get free baits your learn to maximize their potential and learn how to catch fish on them then you tell the public how good a particular bait is! Bottom line is all baits catch fish, hell you can even catch fish on gummy worms and other bait like candies!

Maybe I missed it, but both of those points seem reductionist and bitter. Did they say “putting fish in livewell is wrong?” Then why do they have FLW with a traditional five fish format under the same umbrella? There was definitely an aspect of catch, photograph, release being better for fish than putting them in a livewell, but I don’t remember it being labeled as “wrong.”

It was the anglers who were complaining about fishing for their own money, if I remember right, and proposed no entry fees, voted on it, and it passed. Is that incorrect?

I will never understand the bitterness and relishing of change (temporary or otherwise) - especially in a time when most businesses are struggling and making drastic changes - just because MLF went to a different format.

Yes yes they did say it they ran a commercial during their event.

I'm bitter at all the Johnny doo gooders saying "this is the way of the future" our own mark Jones said that every tournament would mimic this sooner than later. It's conservation blah blah blah. I don't like being sold a bill of goods labeled as prime rib opening it and it's bologna.

But the savings grace in all of this is I thoroughly enjoy being right!