Your Opinion! - Are the Glory Years of Walleye Tournament Fishing Past?

[Texeye]

Yes, they are over. As goes the country, so goes the expendable incomes, advertising dollars,jobs...etc.

The interest is still there, the innovations are still happening, the fishermen are there, the manufacturers still want to sell products...but there is not enough money. Nothing more nothing less.

[Gary Korsgaden]

As a guy that fishes tournaments yourself, you admit the plain reality of tournament angling. Nothing more nothing less. But if manufactures could see the way tournament professionals connect with the non professional angler, it might be a little different story. Like you Kevin a guy that welcomes guys to jump on board with you and spend a day fishing, learning laughing and becoming new friends. Sounds a "currier and Ives" but you know what i mean

[3M TA3]

Originally Posted by stevefellegy

PEOPLE will follow--again--no different than any other sport! PEOPLE! If the same marketing philosophies were used to create a fan base for major league fishing that have been in place for about 3 decades in major sports in general--you'd have a much bigger audience and with that, more advertising bang for the buck by non-endemic sponsors. Of course, if the business model used doesn't include the anglers being paid from those dollars, it all means nothing in the end anyway.

Who in the major league sports fan world, cares about the kind of ball, glove, pads etc. the players use? The majority of fans? What percentage of NASCAR fans care what brand of spark plug or battery so and so's car used to win at Daytona? Simple answers, right?

BUT! Those sports have many fans. It took years --yes--but once the sports marketing world realized it wasn't about the x's and o's of the sport that creates more fans, but instead the "human interest" aspect of the game...they ran with it and created a marketable sport.

Instead, competitve fishing shys away from most every opportuunity they get to create a human interest press release. The good, the bad and ugly needs to all be on the table. That's reality in the major league sports marketing world.

LOL I will not respond here anymore. All I get for the past 25 years is a headache trying. I just wish I had all the money, of my own, I spent trying to learn how other sports succeed, on everyones behalf--only to get laughed at and left in the cold--and in the end, sit here watch all the efforts and investment the pioneer anglers made, fade away to nothing.

This is utter nonsense. These sports have fans because they provide entertainment. They are a SPECTATOR sport. People actually get to watch what's happening. Amazing concept, eh? How much of tournement fishing does the spectator get to see? A weigh in? Yee Haa!!!