Major League Fishing's Bass Pro Tour will have a total payout approaching $10MMAJOR LEAGUE FISHING
Major League Fishing in September announced a professional competition for '19 called the Bass Pro Tour, and the news "slapped the industry like a 10-pound largemouth to the face," as nearly 70 anglers from the sport's top circuit BASS had been "lured away by the promise of more control over league decisions, a more TV-friendly competition format and bigger money," according to Haley Cohen Gilliland of the N.Y. TIMES. MLF's Bass Pro Tour will have a "total payout" approaching $10M. BASS has responded by "lowering its entry fees and upping the prize money at a number of events." The "one-upmanship means that right now is possibly the most lucrative moment in history" to be a pro bass fisherman. Since word of the Bass Pro Tour broke, BASS has "offered a number of new incentives -- including $20,000 early-signing bonuses and a guarantee to pay $2,500 per tournament even to anglers who finish dead last." Despite the sweeteners, an "early trickle of pros away from BASS quickly turned into a hemorrhage." Sources within professional bass fishing said that BASS has a "tough few years ahead of it, with dozens of its biggest personalities gone, but would ultimately survive." BASS is "not only a pro tour; it has amateur competitions and membership rolls of some 500,000 people" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/21).
