It's...Everyman!
Far as I know, Bobby Murray, Bill Dance, Larry Nixon, Denny Brauer (I could go on at length) weren’t born sucking on silver spoons. That’s one thing that’s made bassin’ great: Anyone can catch fish, and anyone can get famous for doing it.
But the sport has gotten away (far away) from that over the last 5 to 10 years, which is why I was stoked to read the piece on Bassin’Fan today about the Elite Series structure. In it, Jerry McKinnis confirms what he’s been saying for about 10 years: the Elite field will get much smaller, just not yet. Quotes, and then I’ll make the connection:
> “We’re going to let everybody play next year [on the Elites] who played this year because next year we’re really going to start cutting and forming what I’ve wanted forever, which is a truly Elite group of anglers. It may just be 10 guys we cut, or 15, or something like that, but we’re for sure going to start cutting.”
> “After next year, I won’t have many friends….”
> “When we come out with the new qualifying system and changes in the Elites, that has to carry over to the Opens. Like I’ve said all along, I’m really concentrating on these Opens and I’m going to try to make a really powerful series out of them – because my hopes and dreams are for the Elites to really become the place, and if that happens, then the Opens have to be upped just as high. Because if you do lose your spot on the Elites, you’ll need a really great place to continue to fish and a good qualifying system to make it back in.”
How does that relate to getting back to bassin’ as an everyman’s – rather than just rich man’s – sport? Let me ‘splain:
If the Elites become a smaller field you hopefully have to qualify for, that means less entry fee money overall, which means a) more sponsor money gets freed up for folks lower down the ranks, and b) being personally wealthy hopefully becomes less of a requirement for top-tier bassin’.
And the much-cheaper and fewer-in-number Opens will be a place for new blood to make a name for themselves – they’ll actually be able to make a name for themselves there.
(This might require a reduced number of Elite events too….)
That’s the scenario I can see happening, anyway – if everyone has the same goal, which is to make pro bassin’ what it once was: Something anyone with a boat and some skillz has a legit shot at doing.
But even if all involved want that (some pros won’t, can’t blame ’em), sounds like B.A.S.S. won’t cut 40 places from the Elites next year so don’t think all this will happen overnight.
Obviously this isn’t an analysis of all possible ramifications of cutting the Elite field, but so far I like what it can mean.
Chad Keogh
September 29, 2011 at 12:01 pm
I wish that bass fishing would be more like the other “ball-based” pro sports. You play in high school, get noticed by College reps, get offered a scholarship to play at their school, then get noticed in college by AAA scouts and go there after you get your diploma/degree, then a big league scout notices you in the AAA’s and offers you a big team deal.
That would be the only way you could be sure that some great anglers aren’t getting left out due to not being lucky enough to be born rich.
5bites
September 29, 2011 at 1:13 pm
I wonder what exactly he means by the opens being upped just as high? Upped incrementally as high the elites or making the on the same level as the elites only without the restrictions?
Dwain
September 29, 2011 at 4:21 pm
I hope it means what you read into it, but I think we need to see more than this to jump to that conclusion. I’ve seen Jerry say that he would like to get to a no-entry fee elite series, but I saw no mention of even lowering fees in this article. I hope you’re right though! is it some inside knowledge? you know more than you read in that article, spill it man lol
Chad Keogh
September 29, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Jerry said in a recent interview on BassTalkLive that he wants the Elite entry fees to be lower. I think no entry fee would be the right amount for the top-level anglers. You don’t see pro baseball players paying entry to the stadium they are about to play in…
Dwain
September 29, 2011 at 11:20 pm
no doubt no-entry would put us a lot closer to being perceived as a legitimate professional sport in the eyes of outsiders.
Brent Brody Broderick
October 1, 2011 at 10:28 am
It’s $5375 per event in 2012. It went up, not down. We will have the largest Elite Field this season if everyone pays to play that’s listed on the invite sheet. Numbers are going up not down in 2012. Elite Pros “Play” for our own money, even at the elite level, at most 10% is sponsor money..It’s no diffrent than an Open or a weeknd series.. the Pot is angler entry money….It’s always been this way, until Bassmaster signs several million dollar sponsorships, the Elite Field is totally depending on the anglers money to pay the purse.
So what Jerry is really saying is that in the next couple of seasons they will be signing several million dollar sponsorships???? If not… a plan of a smaller field doesn’t work fiancially. They need the anglers money for now to make it work..Glad I was asked back to be an investor….
Rich Arnold
September 30, 2011 at 1:12 pm
I am pretty sure last year I read Jerry’s vision when he did interviews after buying BASS with his group. One of the problems he wanted to tackle was the payout structure. Current structure stinks unless you win…look at the disparity in the elites between 1st and 2nd place. Anglers can’t make a living by paying high entry fees, incuring huge travel expenses and winning peanuts for a top five finish. Then for the Opens you have to do the same thing for less prize money and against a field twice the size. I am sure Jerry and his team are working out the bugs of the new strategy and that’s why it isn’t put into play for next year. Slow and steady wins the long race. I like the idea of having tiered groups / leagues to seperate the truly great anglers from the truly lucky anglers. I know what I would like to see is ALL anglers fishing under one emblem. That’s right! One not three or four. The talent could be better concentrated and we would not have to debate and argue if KVD is better than Bryan Thrift. Prize money could be pooled. Sponsorships could be focused better as well especially by upping the Ranger Cup, Toyota Bucks, etc. Not sure if I like the FLW team sponsorship or the BASS individual sponsorship thing better, but it would work either way.
Jim Holmes
October 3, 2011 at 4:41 pm
“we would not have to debate and argue if KVD is better than Bryan Thrift”
Really? This is actually happening somewhere?
Rich Arnold
October 4, 2011 at 9:15 am
I know, right!? Believe it or not that was the chatter back in the Spring of this year. Take a look at posts here as well as BassFan over who’s really number one in the world rankings.