Texas never had a newer Outdoors Show Classic before and those anglers in Texas have limited understanding of everything wrapped around one. We don’t know on another Houston Classic. Dallas had no interest in this on a couple of attempts and we think downtown Dallas is the perfect location with lakes in a reasonable proximity.
We thought the Houston would set records on attendance and we obviously were excited to see it on Conroe. Unfortunately it was not a record setting Classic and Texas bass fishing enthusiasts went fishing themselves that weekend. They missed a wonderful opportunity to get more understanding on what makes their sport have the power to offer the amenities they enjoy.
The next decision on another Texas Bassmaster Classic will swing on the lower participation in the prior Houston event, and the unknown on if it will produce more participation a second time.
Tulsa, Birmingham, Shreveport and other have offered what the sport and Bassmaster needs to bring them back,
Knoxville rocked!
To be fair, the West Coast has a Very limited understand of impact the Classic has on their activity in the sport as they are disconnected from it. I doubt we ever see a west coast Classic as the dice roll would be too risky.
Rick Pierce
BCB
Dallas is packed with people who already travel to your events out of state. Your evaluation would be more accurate to say the funding is not there, as there is and has always been lots of interest. While you think downtown would be a perfect place to hold your event, the vast majority of fisherman in Texas would avoid downtown Dallas like the plague. We would love to have a North Texas, or East Texas Classic, but Dallas sucks