TBF/FLW vs. ESPN/BASS: Battle of the Centrury or does it even matter?

Is your state still on the fence? Debating whether to follow the TBF into the new realm of FLW or stay with the well know entity which is ESPN/BASS? Difficult decision.... One thing to keep in mind, both of these organizations main objective is to make money, ESPN want to sell advertising and Irwin Jacobs wants to sell more boats. All in all, the Federation anger is just an ends to their means.

When you look at it that way, are we just trying to find the lesser of two evils? In the short run, your current federation will most likely have to pick a side, but regardless which way your state goes, a competing federation will soon come in to its own. At this point, there is no evidence that would suggest individual and clubs cannot participate in both federations. In the end, I think its the bass clubs that will come out smelling like roses.

Think back about 10 years ago, there was only one professional circuit in town. Irwin Jacobs wanted participate with BASS, Ray Scott showed not interest, so FLW was funded out of Irwin Jacob's deep pockets, partly to make money and partly out of spite. Since that happened, the professional sport of fishing has made leaps and bounds. We may very well see those improvements at the federation level. In my mind, this may be the beginning of great things for the weekend warriors.

Rich Lindgren
www.richlindgren.com