azfish1
November 19th, 2006, 09:32 AM
FLW Tour or Elite Series pro tournaments in the western U.S.?
Ricky Shabazz of Rialto, CA writes:
Do you ever think there will come a time when FLW or BASS will ever host regular (annual) FLW Tour or Elite Series pro tournaments in the western U.S.? It seems that even though the West continues to send anglers into the national spotlight, both tours shy away from making eastern, northern and southern anglers come west on a regular basis. What gives? How is it fair for either tour to refer to themselves as national and totally ignore an entire region?
BassFan CEO Jay Kumar: Ricky, I think the biggest thing is cost. Or logistics. It probably looks like a giant pain in the butt to send all their tournament staff, equipment and whatever else all the way out there just to make less money than they would if they stayed closer to home. Lots of pros feel that way about their own expenses (when going west).
As far as national vs. regional, I think you could make a case that both leagues have only regional tours, or series. But so what? They're the biggest games in town.
To answer your first question, yeah, I think there will be regular West Coast tournaments, maybe once a year, at some point – simply because I think ignoring California, in particular, is a mistake. It's a big fishing market with lots of bass fishermen.
Ricky Shabazz of Rialto, CA writes:
Do you ever think there will come a time when FLW or BASS will ever host regular (annual) FLW Tour or Elite Series pro tournaments in the western U.S.? It seems that even though the West continues to send anglers into the national spotlight, both tours shy away from making eastern, northern and southern anglers come west on a regular basis. What gives? How is it fair for either tour to refer to themselves as national and totally ignore an entire region?
BassFan CEO Jay Kumar: Ricky, I think the biggest thing is cost. Or logistics. It probably looks like a giant pain in the butt to send all their tournament staff, equipment and whatever else all the way out there just to make less money than they would if they stayed closer to home. Lots of pros feel that way about their own expenses (when going west).
As far as national vs. regional, I think you could make a case that both leagues have only regional tours, or series. But so what? They're the biggest games in town.
To answer your first question, yeah, I think there will be regular West Coast tournaments, maybe once a year, at some point – simply because I think ignoring California, in particular, is a mistake. It's a big fishing market with lots of bass fishermen.