Information about the Walmart sponsorship of FLW Outdoors seems to be guarded more closely than Fort Knox. We know that Walmart no longer sponsors the league – its logo can't be found anywhere in FLW Outdoors media. But when exactly did the company decide to move away from its sponsorship of the league?
Exact details will likely never be known, but notable is a comment from George Cochran that he didn't know until "the last minute" whether he'd have his Walmart team deal again this year, which would seem to indicate that a Walmart/FLW Outdoors partnership was still being worked on late into the fall.
During day-1 coverage of the recent Table Rock FLW Tour, BassFan asked Cochran about his sponsor situation, and whether he was able to add any sponsors during the off-season.
"No, I didn't," he said. "The only reason was I wasn't able to do anything was I didn't find out until the last minute that Walmart pulled out. Ranger and Evinrude are my team now. Ranger's always been my big sponsor. It hurt losing Walmart – that was a lot of extra money I was making. But I'll be 60 years old in May. I've had 30 years of everything going up, up, up every year. I've had a lot of good sponsors and I've made a lot of money when I won some big tournaments. So if I'm down a little the last few years, it doesn't bother me.
"But I feel sorry for the young fishermen," he added. "A lot of guys lost their (team deals) that really needed them. Guys like me and Larry (Nixon) already have everything paid for and we're getting ready to retire in a few years."
And as usual, Cochran couldn't help but jab at his best friend Nixon a little bit.
"I call him Uncle Jed Clampett," Cochran said. "They've got new gas wells all over his property. He's making more money than Carters got pills. I'm going to retire and be his hay boy. He's still got (Team) Chevy, but I like to say that his No. 1 sponsor is gas."
