They announced you must compete in all 9 events. Top 9 get a birth. No longer offering regional births. Saw they had the most anglers ever sign up for all opens this year.

Geeze!

$$$

I think I like the change.

That's a good thing. People will still chase the carrot of the Classic

Interesting.
I'm not sure that this will produce the highest caliber angler.
For the average guy it would be both very expensive and very hard to make the time to fish all nine.

Sounds like a desperate cash grab attempt...

Had heard rumors of some changes, but this change just seems odd. I was expecting something similar to the Pro Circuit. This certainly isn't that. At least there is a remote possibility of a few breaking even in the Pro Circuit. I don't see how any young angler can afford to take the route of fishing all nine opens. The costs are mind blowing and the return is worse than horrible. Just some real basic math using horribly conservative numbers. Entry fees, gas, lodging, food will be a minimum of $30,000. That number is very conservative and honestly using gas figures that are out of date. It's also figuring a base of operation in the Tennessee area which is pretty central. That number doesn't even take into account boat payment, truck payment, insurance, maintenance cost, or maintaining a home base of operation. It's a huge money losing venture.

A lot of college anglers are disappointed in the change for this very reasoning.........

Same here.


If a guy can't figure out a way to pay for 9 Opens then chances are he will struggle to pay for a season on the Elites. Plus fishing all 9 shows a true commitment to wanting to get to the Elites and better mimics the Elite trail. Last but not least the guys that are more consistently good over 9 different fisheries will probably be a more skilled angler thus keeping the level of competition in the Elites a notch above. It's the Elites and as a fan I think it should take more than just being good on 3 lakes and getting an Elite invite. It should be harder to get to tbat level. Even if a guy has money he is still gonna have to catch them consistently over 9 events to get that invite.

Also a guy can still fish a few a year that are closest to him. If money is holding him back then he can work his [censored] off to win one and finance a complete season. Either way its a way for the best to rise up through the season.

I agree with all of this. You will get more well rounded anglers and not just a guy that got lucky on his home lake and ended up winning a division.

If they would have been doing this years ago we wouldn’t have the low caliber of elite guys we currently have right now. Not many are actually contenders but just place holders

I think this current crop of Elites as a whole can hang with just about any of the former Elites except generatiinal guys like maybe Wheeler, KVD etc.

unfortunately it's going to be a lot like this travel baseball and soccer teams in that only those with financial support from their families are going to be able to compete...high school and college fishing teams are llike that already...

This is a fact, guy’s win on their area lakes like Gleason then goes out there and doesn’t preform. Hopefully this stops this from happening in the future