FLW Outdoors distributed an open letter from chairman Irwin Jacobs to FLW Tour anglers late today that announced that the payout schedule for the 2007 Tour has been revised to favor anglers who finish in the Top 40.
At the ICAST show last month in Las Vegas, the organization announced that it would pay $10,000 down to 100th place at its three 2007 opens. Under the new format, the $10,000 payments will end at 60th place.
Anglers who finish 61st through 75th will now receive $7,000, and those placing 76th through 100th will get $4,000.
In the letter, Jacobs wrote that the revisions were made at the request of some Tour anglers.
"I recently received several e-mails and calls from anglers who compete in our FLW Tour events regarding our proposed 2007 tournament payouts," he wrote. "Several weeks ago when our president, Charlie Evans, and our executive vice president, Kathy Fennel, and I were discussing both our schedules and payouts for 2007, I insisted that the payouts for the FLW Tour open tournaments in 2007 include $10,000 payouts down to 100th place.
"It was my thought that with the out-of-pocket costs that FLW Tour anglers incur throughout the season, they would appreciate and welcome the opportunity to recoup much, if not most, of their travel and other expenses during the season if they finished in just half of the tournaments in the top 50% of the field. However, to my surprise, we have heard from a lot of FLW Tour anglers who felt our 2007 proposed payouts were unbalanced and skewed much too rich in payouts toward the bottom of the field and not rich enough to the top of the field."
"After a lot of thought and discussions between Charlie, Kathy and me, we agree with those anglers who have come forth and expressed their opinions regarding our 2007 FLW Tour payouts."
Winners of the $1.5 million opens will still receive $150,000, but the payment for 2nd place is now $75,000 (up $25,000 from the original announcement). Payments to the rest of the Top 10 have been increased by at least $12,000, and prizes have been boosted by at least $1,000 from 11th through 40th places.
Anglers who finish 41st through 60th will still receive $10,000
For the $1 million qualifiers (the other three events on the regular-season schedule) payouts for the Top 2 places remain at $100,000 and $50,000, respectively. Awards to the rest of the Top 10 will be increased by at least $2,500.
From 11th place down to 40th, payouts will go up at least $250. Anglers finishing 41st through 50th will still receive $10,000, but payout amounts go down from there ($2,500 less to places 51 through 60 and $1,850 less to places 61 through 75).
"No doubt, there are probably some of you who fish in our FLW Tour events that would like to see the payouts of $10,000 through 100th place," Jacobs wrote. "However, after hearing from those professional anglers that did come forth, quite frankly, we agree with them.
"All of us involved in professional competitive fishing, both the anglers and the FLW Outdoors organization, are working hard to grow the sport of professional angling and at the same time grow our credibility and our spectatorship. Therefore, we have concluded that it is important that we more heavily reward those anglers that finish in the top of the field to a much greater degree than we originally proposed for the 2007 payouts."
