Word around last week's Bassmaster Classic was that the location and dates for the 2019 edition of that event would be announced within a couple of weeks. I don't much care where B.A.S.S. decides to put it – there will be plenty of drama and intrigue to keep things more than interesting no matter where it ends up.
The 2020 version, though, is another story entirely. If the organization isn't thinking Lake Mead for that one, it should be. It's time to pay heed to tradition and conduct the Golden Anniversary derby at the site of the first one in 1971, and it's way past time for another Classic to be held west of the Rockies.
Please, B.A.S.S. folks, do not stick this one in Alabama and pretend like that's honoring the event's roots. Yeah, the organization was founded (and is once again headquartered) there and Ray Scott might have been physically within the state's borders when the Classic lightbulb turned on in his brain, but that's it as far as the event itself goes. The Classic was born on the big Colorado River impoundment in the southern Nevada desert. Period.
Would staging the sport's premier event in Las Vegas be a major money-maker? Perhaps not. All of the big casinos likely handle more loot every day than the Classic would generate and the Convention and Visitors Authority isn't going to bend over backwards to bring it to town. It probably wouldn't get overwhelming play in the local media with March Madness going on, the Vegas Golden Knights entering the home stretch of their NHL season and some big boxing or mixed martial arts matchup on the immediate horizon.
Nonetheless, B.A.S.S. should find a way to make it happen. There will be no better occasion to pay homage to the event's founding than the 50th renewal, and no better way to do it than returning to the place where it all went down for the first time.
Mead would be an excellent venue in March. You wouldn't see 51 out of 52 competitors catch limits on day 1, as happened last week at Lake Hartwell. Anybody could zero on any of the three days and stringers weighing in excess of 15 pounds would be very difficult to repeat. There would likely be at least one 20-pound bag caught, though, as there was at Hartwell, and it could be comprised of largemouths, smallmouths or a mix of those species.
There's plenty of convention space in Vegas to conduct the Expo and weigh-ins could be held at sparkling T-Mobile Arena (home of the Golden Knights) or at the Thomas and Mack Center on the UNLV campus. If a calendar slot in March can't be secured, heck, move the whole thing back to February. There's very little chance the roads or ramps are going to be icy, no matter what time of year it is.
Would the bass-fishing community support it? There's a good chance that it would. BassFans are generally tradition-minded people and a lot of them have enjoyed weekends in Vegas for various occasions.
There may be factors I don't know about that make this whole deal impossible to pull off. If it is doable, though, it'd be a shame if it weren't pursued with every available resource. The sport – and the event – deserve the effort.
–– John Johnson, BassFan Senior Editor
