Toyota championship is on Wheeler lake this week....assume each boat cost $60,000.(a real conservative figure)...that's 14 million dollars worth of boats....there are 402 boaters and no-boaters and assume each of them owns a conservative estimate of $5,000. worth of fishing tackle...that's 2 million dollars worth of tackle......counting tournament officials,the tournament has brought approx 225 people to the tournament for 5 days...assuming a conservative figure of $500.00 for food motel and gas,that amounts to $212,500.00 and that doesn't count probably another $50,000. spent by fishermen practicing before the cut-off...nice economic boost to the local economy....
NOW CONSIDER THIS IS ONE TOURNAMENT,ON ONE LAKE,IN ONE STATE....multiply all the above numbers by the tournaments held in our country each year and although we can't compete with stick and ball sports, we do have a sizeable impact on towns near lakes and the equipment and tackle manufactors that supply our sport.....

I can’t argue with that. What does that pay to the Champion and second place?

Edit: I looked it up, pretty good payout. Poche whacked them today, 27lbs!

Are they having to buy a new boat, rods and reels, and tackle for each lake, or what?

the problem with your math is the local folks dont care if they come or not the days of tournament directors going to lakes an getting money from the chamber of coomerce is vanishing because some have figured out the juice aint worth the sqeeze.

What in the hell are you talking about .. chunk the boat, chunk the rods, they are spending on hotels and vbro, some on food, ice, gas, a little tackle. Your numbers are grossly inflated

Spot on WAWI


All the things you outlined would be bought and owned anyway regardless of a tournament

next time you stay at a motel,look at your bill.....it will have a local tourism tax usually $7-12.00 each night and those taxes go into a fund to attract events to that town to boost business...I'm told that bigger cities like Pittsburgh,Cincinnati,Knoxville and Birmingham will pay BASS up to $500,000 to bring the classic there...even smaller cities like Zapata,Texas gave BASS $250,000. to bring a tournament there.....I'm told that Alabama Bass Trail gets a sizeable donation from every town on their schedule.....keep in mind that smaller towns have these motel tourism tax funds and bass tournaments have a far greater impact on their economy than almost any other event they can attract to their town.......

$250,000. seems like a lot for a small town like Zapata to pay but after BASS had that tournament and huge bags were caught every day....for next 6-8 years,every motel was booked from January through April and every restaurant was packed every night....either James or Tommy at Falcon Tackle told me they sold fishing licenses to guys from 37 different states in a two week period in Feburary...this same scenario repeats itself all over the country at towns fortunate enough to be located near good bass fishing lakes...

The boat cost would really be more along the lines of the cost of the boat divided by the number of tournaments fished out of before it is sold or traded plus maintenance. If it is sold or traded then you'd just base the cost on the equity or cost to trade into a new boat. You'd have to throw a tow vehicle into these numbers too and calculating that cost per tournament would be very tricky.
Fuel and lodging would probably be a lot more too. I was probably spending the numbers you quoted back in the 80's and 90's, but that also had a lot to do with how far you travel. I spoke to one of the anglers @ the BASS Classic in Shreveport several years ago about this and fuel was probably more expensive than it is now and just for the classic he'd spend $1500.

Maybe i didn't do a good job of explaining... ONE tournament has 14 million dollars worth of boats....another 14 million in tow vehicles and probably 2 million in tackle....the economic impact to decatur,Al. is probably $250,000....I have no idea how to multiply that by the number of states,towns and lakes that have bass tournaments but i can assure you it is a big number and has a huge impact on the towns around lakes and every bass boat and tackle dealer in the USA....

I thought you were implying how much the fishing guys contributed to the general economy overall, with their: boats, rods, reels & lures. Then saying how much the local economy benefited from the 200 +/- guys fishing a tournament. Although, a lot of those guys probably live within driving distance of the lake and that cancels out the bump.

There's a reason Champs keeps going to the Red...

If it don't make ¢ents anymore its time to fold up shop...

If it's such an economic boon why do they keep going back to the same venues???... Cincy hasn't had a Classic or big time tournament since 1983... L'ville since 1987... Pittsburgh since 2005 and the FLW championship in 2009... If it was such an economic boon why aren't these cities throwing money at BASS, MLF/BPT or NPFL???... Yeah the fishery sucks, but if it's all about the almighty dollar the fishing organizations would be stepping all over themselves to get their grubby paws on it... It apparently works for some cities but doesn't in others... Dan

I disagree… The Juice is worth the squeeze, most just don’t have a way to measure that impact.

Towns and Tourism are accustomed to events filling their towns, traffic is more congested and restaurants are busy throughout the day. With bass tournaments it’s quite different, because we are on the water well before dark, off the water after dark. And much of our activity is during nocturnal times while others are inactive.

Just last night I watched a 75 boat event slip into a very unaware town after dark. They started eating, filling up trucks and boats, visited WalMart and all happened during the time that many are secluded themselves to their homes for the day.

VRBO aspects have changed hotels and motels gauging what we spend on housing, as the “heads in beds” counts don’t add up with VRBO.often those realtors and owners weekend lake homes get our dollars today. They too should be participating in those tourism taxes and supporting those Chambers.

One trip to an out of state lake with a 150 boat field expends about 75% to 80% of the field, as they buy fishing licenses alone. A Conservation Dept. can gain upwards of $10,000 and as much as $30,000 or more on a well scheduled rotation. That’s just for your local conservation agency.

Now go figure the actual “juice” out.

Rick

I hope so- it gets old having a tournament(s) every single weekend. Trading spaces isn’t just a show on hgtv, it’s a normal thing at every fishing spot