I would guess that there are about 100 guys in Texas that are really professional Tournament fishermen and have no other job. A lot have sponsors. There may be another 100 that fishes all the tournaments but they have a side job of guiding along with sponsors. There are about 300 that fishes all the big tournaments but at the same time they have real jobs, but have the ability to take a lot of time off work. There are about 10,000 of us that are really weekend amateurs with no sponsor help and have a hard time getting off work.
If you create a tournament with a high pay-back, those 100,100,and 300 will be the 1st ones to enter.
I really like the pro-am format but like you said the payback sucks and most are in the 60-70% payback range and are a profit center for the organizers. They do use a little of our entry fees to cover the championships and may have sponsor money to help as well.
I would definately like to see something with 100% payback for us weekend anglers in a pro-am format. May have to keep it cheap with $100 entry fee for boater and $50 for non-boater, but maybe pay back 1 in 7 to have better winnings for those that win. I am sure there are sponsors that could donate 10% or more and let the organizers keep 10 or so percent.