Working together for the benefit of all

At FLW Outdoors we usually don’t pay much attention to Web sites or message boards. For one, we are too busy. We are too busy administering and trying to improve our tournaments for participants. Too busy growing the circulation of our bass, walleye and saltwater magazines. Too busy producing Emmy-nominated television shows and trying to improve those shows with innovative technologies and content. Too busy ensuring that our Web site remains the industry leader. And too busy recruiting and servicing sponsor partners. Secondly, it’s far too easy in today’s electronic age for armchair quarterbacks to post off-the-cuff comments that they may later regret – comments that lack real substance, are misinformed or, worse yet, are blatantly false. Once these comments are out, however, there is no taking them back. Words live forever on the Internet. Unfortunately, this undeniable truth is not always enough to trigger careful evaluation of one’s ramblings before they are disseminated to thousands of people with the stroke of a key. The days of thoughtful contemplation, I’m afraid, are perilously close to dying in a world increasingly dominated by blurbs and sound bites – a world in which the opinions of anyone with a computer and an agenda are presented as fact. Yes, it is easier to express an opinion than to research the facts. It is easier to paint a biased picture than to be objective. But being easy doesn’t make it right. Admittedly, I am not a journalist, but I believe that our sport’s interests are best served by those journalists who report the facts and leave the conclusions to the reader. At the very least, supporting one’s opinion with facts would be a nice change of pace.

With this in mind, I’d like to examine a few recent comments/opinions posted on Bassfan.com that I found particularly disturbing. I hope, after closer scrutiny and a clear examination of the facts, the authors of these posts (whom I consider friends) will reconsider their positions and help move the sport forward instead of trying to knock down what so many people have labored to build.

Us against them: That’s not how it works

Jay Kumar and his colleagues at Bassfan.com are uniquely situated to promote the sport. They are, after all, one of only a few Web sites positioned to cover all three leading bass-fishing circuits, i.e. the FLW Tour, BASS Elite Series and FLW Series, and they were the first to do so. For far too long the folks at Bassfan.com have been consumed with pitting FLW Outdoors against BASS. The truth is that the fates of BASS and FLW Outdoors are linked. FLW Outdoors does not harbor ill will toward BASS, nor do I believe does BASS wish bad things for FLW Outdoors. It’s a well-known adage that “a rising tide floats all ships.” This is especially true in tournament fishing. While we certainly may not always agree with their direction, we understand that BASS, like FLW Outdoors, is working diligently to bring growth and excitement to the sport for the betterment of everyone involved. The entire sport is better off because of our respective efforts – efforts that currently provide more opportunity for more people than ever before.

Similar comparisons can be drawn to the PAA. We may not always agree, but we certainly respect the organization’s positions and know, in their view, they are acting in the best interest of the sport. Why wouldn’t they? Why wouldn’t we all? The more popular the sport becomes, the more participants we attract, the larger the fan base grows, the more revenue is generated through sponsorships, the better off everyone is who makes a living in the tournament-fishing arena. Be it the journalists writing about the sport, the anglers competing, the staff running the tournaments, the engineers designing reels, the line worker assembling outboard engines or the associate ringing up sales of Snickers, A&W and Land O’Lakes at Wal-Mart. We all benefit. The idea that we don’t is outrageous, which brings me to a statement posted June 6 by Michael Jones on Bassfan.com under the heading “For the Betterment of Everyone?” Here Michael states that FLW Outdoors and BASS “no longer serve as the custodians of the sport.” That we are “building upon something in ways that don’t necessarily place the good of the sport ahead of the good of (our) business.” The good of the sport and the good of our business are linked. One does not exist without the other, so the notion that FLW Outdoors and BASS no longer serve as custodians of the sport is ludicrous. For this to be true would mean that we care nothing about our own well being or the well being of our employees and customers – the sponsors, the anglers and their fans, without which there is no sport.

Harold Sharp, who I have known and respected for many years, even states in the Bassfan.com feedback section that “BASS is owned by ESPN/ABC/Disney – companies that are known for spending huge sums of money on some idea that doesn’t work, then just dumping it in the can and moving on.” And that “FLW is only interested in selling their boats so they run the tournaments by their rules to sell more of their product….As long as that works, they don’t worry about the sport.” Again, this just doesn’t make sense.

Yes, at FLW Outdoors we strive to sell Ranger boats. But we also strive to sell Evinrude and Yamaha engines and Chevy trucks and Lowrance electronics and Kellogg’s cereal and BP fuel, etc. We must show our sponsors a return on their investments, and we do this by serving our anglers and their fans. We are the ultimate custodians of the sport. Our livelihoods depend on it. And so do the livelihoods of the nation’s top pros. Pros that Jay Kumar believes “aren’t valued as highly by FLW Outdoors…”

The truth is that FLW Outdoors holds its pros, all of them, in the highest regard, and our value is expressed in very tangible ways. FLW Outdoors introduced the first $100,000 award in bass fishing at the 1984 All-American. In 1997, $100,000 became the standard top award in FLW Tour competition, and the sport’s first $200,000 award was introduced by FLW Outdoors. The following year, we upped payouts again with the sport’s first $250,000 award. Then, in 2003, we introduced the sport’s first $500,000 award. Now, in 2007, the sport may very well see its first instant millionaire when the Forrest Wood Cup wraps up competition in Hot Springs, Ark., Aug. 5.

Do we really want to return to the “benevolent leadership” of Ray Scott as Michael suggests in his post? Make no mistake about it: Ray Scott was a pioneer, and FLW Outdoors and BASS are building on the foundation that he helped lay with other pioneers like Forrest and Nina Wood, among others. But Ray was also motivated by profit, just like every other successful pioneer and every other successful sporting enterprise. Without profits, professional bass fishing would languish in obscurity or, worse yet, go the way of the XFL. Without profits and visionaries like Irwin Jacobs, there would not be the capital necessary to provide the unprecedented opportunities that anglers enjoy today. Including the FLW Tour, BASS Elite Series and FLW Series, professional tournament anglers now have 28 events in which to compete for a share of $29.7 million. Every single tournament in each of these circuits offers a minimum top award of $100,000 and $10,000 through 50th place. The FLW Tour’s three Opens go a step further, offering top awards of $200,000 and $10,000 through 60th place. Before Irwin Jacobs got involved and introduced the FLW Tour in 1996, professional anglers largely fished for a return of their own money.

Where would the sport be today without FLW Outdoors and our sponsors or BASS and its sponsors? It took Kevin VanDam 15 years to break $1 million in career BASS winnings and 20 years to break $2 million. In contrast, David Dudley achieved $1.2 million in FLW Outdoors winnings in just two tournaments over an 18-month span and $2 million in FLW Outdoors winnings in just 11 years – nine fewer than Kevin. I bring this up not to pit David against Kevin, but to illustrate how times have changed for the better. Now the stage is set to mint a new FLW Outdoors millionaire every season.

FLW Outdoors led the way in offering unprecedented all-cash payouts. FLW Outdoors pioneered the use of wrapped boats in 1999 and wrapped tow vehicles in 2000 to increase the sport’s visibility. FLW Outdoors was the first to extend payouts of $10,000 through 50th place in 2004. FLW Outdoors made history with the first live tournament broadcast on network TV in 1999. FLW Tour pros have been featured in USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, Fortune, Field & Stream and on “World News Tonight,” “Next @ CNN,” “Headline Sports,” “Nightly Business Report,” “On the Money,” “The Early Show” and “Late Night with David Letterman” – all firsts for the sport. FLW Outdoors sponsors collectively field a team of more than 85 professional bass anglers. At FLW Outdoors we value our pros and seek to give them the broader recognition that they rightly deserve.

To this end, FLWOutdoors.com was the first Web site to offer up-to-the-minute angler profiles that compile results, winnings and photos of every FLW Outdoors participant. FLWOutdoors.com was also the first site to introduce live streaming audio, video and leaderboards to maximize exposure opportunities for FLW Tour anglers. Today, FLW Outdoors also produces more tournament-fishing broadcasts than any other organization with 43 weeks of original programming distributed to 80 million households in the United States and more than 429 million households outside the United States.

We introduced the FLW Series at the request of anglers who would have otherwise been left without a home due to changing growth strategies at BASS. This multimillion-dollar investment is the ultimate display of how much we value professional anglers and support them in their efforts to earn a living in the sport.

To close, I would like to address one final statement made by Jay Kumar. That the “Bassmaster Classic still is the most prestigious bass tournament on the planet.” True, the Classic is a terrific show with a rich history. But the Forrest Wood Cup is a tremendous display of the best that this sport has to offer. On Lake Ouachita in Hot Springs, Ark., August 2-5, 81 pros and 81 co-angles – the top anglers from the FLW Tour, the FLW Series, the $1 million Stren Series Championship, the $1 million BFL All-American, the TBF Championship and Ranger/Stratos Owners events – will participate in the richest tournament in the history of our sport, the $2 million Forrest Wood Cup. This event will feature a family-friendly outdoor show with hundreds of exhibits attracting thousands of spectators and will be broadcast nationwide on FSN plus internationally to more than 429 million households. More importantly, there’s an excellent chance one angler will walk away with $1 million, which will be the greatest single moment in the history of our sport. Everyone involved in, or connected to, this sport will benefit when this happens. You don’t want to miss this. Come to Hot Springs and join us in the celebration and be a part of history in the making.