After BASS VP and GM Don Rucks dismissed seven officers from The Bass Federation Inc. (TBF Inc.), rumblings rattled through the industry about what might occur should FLW Outdoors extend its hand to the BASS Federation.
That hand is now outstretched.
In the following interview, FLW Outdoors chairman Irwin Jacobs details a recent meeting that took place between
representatives of TBF Inc., FLW Outdoors and Ranger Boats. He also discusses his pending monetary offer to the Federation, and reveals the motives behind that offer.
(Editor's note: Jacobs is also chairman and CEO of Genmar Holdings Inc., parent company of Ranger, Stratos and Champion, among other boat brands.)
BassFan: You met last Thursday (Dec. 1) with representatives of TBF Inc. Who was there?
Jacobs: Forrest and Nina Wood, Randy Hopper (Ranger Boats president), Charlie Evans (FLW Outdoors CEO), Kathy Fennel (FLW Outdoors COO), Keith Daffron (Ranger VP of sales) and myself met with the representatives of TBF Inc. in Flippin (Ark.) last Thursday.
Was that meeting at your behest or theirs?
It was both. There had been a couple calls back and forth asking for a session with us, and we said we'd be happy to accommodate them. It turned out to be the appropriate time and place, and I accommodated their schedule and I went there.
What was the nature of the meeting?
I think this was really a meeting to understand each other. I told them what's important for us to understand is, What do they have that they like? What don't they like that they have? And what do they wish that they had?
It was my view going in there that if I couldn't give them what they liked that they had, and if I couldn't replace what they didn't like that they had, and I couldn't offer them something in the area of what they want of me, then I really wouldn't be doing them any favors.
And I'm confident after that meeting that we can offer them a whole lot more than they're getting today, or have been getting.
What would some of that be – what you think the Federation doesn't have now?
There's no secret to the fact that the BASS organization and the BASS Federation really are miles apart. When you write a letter that Don Rucks wrote to them, telling the whole world out there that they were canceling these people out – they're no longer welcome – these are the people elected by the (Federation members) they represent.
Then, you get a guy like Ray Scott who's just unbelievably irresponsible to write a letter to "cut the cancer out." How could anybody write such a rotten word in respect to the people who give every day of their life to help grow the Federation?
(Editor's note: Scott did not mention "cancer" in his open letter to Federation members. He did describe the Federation divisional representatives as a "cancer" in a BassFan news story, and supported BASS's dismissal of them.)
Let me make one thing clear: There's no BASS without the Federation, as far as I'm concerned. If you had the Top 500 fishermen in the world, it wouldn't be enough to keep (BASS) going if they didn't have the Federation.
So I don't see what these people (BASS) are doing. Based on what we understand of what they're charging and what they're giving, they're not giving (Federation members) anything. They charge them for everything.
So all these things that (BASS) lists out that they give them really are at the cost of the Federation members. And in fact, BASS gets a whole lot more from them than what they give back based on today's situation.
As far as we're concerned, we're willing to pay for the relationship with (Federation members) to give them some dollars with which to grow their bass clubs and the state organizations.
We want to see this grow. We don't want to see this (current BASS-Federation episode) be decisive in the sense of making the Federation go away. That's the last thing we want to do. But based on what we've seen the last 2 weeks, these people at BASS are single-handedly destroying the whole Federation.
I understand two states have already pulled out (of the BASS Federation). I just heard 39 states have decided not to send the money to (BASS). They're sending it to TBF Inc.
You said you'd be willing to pay for a relationship with the Federation. Have you put a dollar amount on that yet?
Not yet, but let me put it to you this way: We're prepared to offer them a seven-figure amount of money, and we'll present that to them before we present it to the media. That's for the entire Federation.
And that's not buying them, that's just working with them. They're going to be independent the rest of their life, and we think that they should be. Their destiny should always be in their hands, so we couldn't ask them to sell their souls to us for money.
We'd tell them that we want to give them money to do some things with.
Is that a yearly figure?
Yes.
Obviously, that's a good opportunity for Ranger Boats. Is that what's really behind this offer?
You say that, and yeah, I hope it is (a good opportunity). But beside that, they say all boats rise in a high tide. The future of the whole industry – the fishing as well as the boating industry – rides on the growth of the grassroots and foundation of fishing.
These (Federation) people represent it in the most major way of any organization out there. They should be treated very special. They've done more than anybody else, including Ray Scott. He wouldn't have had an organization without them.
And how this man can sit up there and speak – and you can quote me on this – how can Ray Scott publicly say "carve them out like cancer?"
I want you to know – and if (Scott) denies this, history will prove him wrong – there wouldn't be a BASS organization without Ranger. It never would have happened. Nina and Forrest made that happen. They joined up with him.
I'll never forget the first thing Ray Scott said to me one night when he came to our (Ranger) banquet in 1993, when I was the owner of the company. He said, "I have Ranger in my veins."
The next thing you know, he no longer had a job with BASS, so he had to go out and raise some money for his pockets, and went out there and took a job with Triton. All of a sudden he says it's the greatest boat he's ever had. So no one is more hypocritical than Ray Scott. Nobody.
To call these people cancer, then to sit there and all of a sudden change his whole support – and I've never said this publicly, but the time is right with what he's doing right now – he's the last person who should open his mouth. He should go off into the sunset very quietly.
These people (Federation members) are not being treated right, plain and simple – not by Rucks, not by him (Scott), and not by this (BASS director of Federation and angler relations) Gary Jones. None of them. Or ESPN for that matter.
One of the concerns BassFan has heard the last few weeks from Federation members is about youth – recruiting future bass anglers – and the conservation projects the Federation heads up. Does FLW Outdoors share that concern?
We do. Those are two areas where frankly we can use their help in a great way. The fact is we're doing a lot of work, but they've got a lot more lifetime experience in doing it, and they're the ones that are doing it. BASS is not doing it. It's the Federation that's doing it.
We want to support them with that. The single most-important part of growing the sport is the younger generation and conservation.
The Federation has some media through BASS right now, and they have club- and state-produced media. Did you talk about how you could bring a national media presence to the Federation?
Let me put it to you this way: They won't be out anything with us. Relative to what they have, they'll have a whole lot more. That's all I can tell you.
I plan on speaking to the presidents at their big deal in January down in Florida – all 48 of them.
(Editor's note: There will be a series of Federation meetings prior to the Jan. 11–13 Federation National Championship at Florida's Harris Chain.)
Is that where you plan to present your offer?
Hopefully we'll have it in their hands long before that, but I'll come down so I can hopefully answer any questions they might have. I'm really going down there for their benefit, not for mine – to give them a chance to talk to me directly.
As part of your offer, do you plan to give Federation members a shot at qualifying for the Forrest Wood Cup?
Let me put it to you this way: They'll have a shot at the brass ring in our deal too. And ours is for more money than theirs (BASS's).
But they'll have more chances than that. They won't have to just wait for that one – there'll be a lot of opportunities.
So it's your position that there is some business opportunity here, but also that you need to make this offer for the good of the sport? Is that a fair assessment of your position?
Look, if somebody doesn't step up and do this right now, I have my doubts whether there's going to be (a Federation) organization in place there, so I'm doing it for two reasons.
One, I think it's very important that what (BASS) created here to separate (the Federation) is God-awful and it does threaten the sheer life of over 30 years of what these people have put their heart and soul into.
And the other side to it is yes, it's a huge opportunity for us on the FLW side to support and partner with (the Federation), which I think will bring benefits. But to put all that aside, I just want to see them in the mode of growth, not the mode of going out of business.
Did you lay some of the seeds of this in your meeting with the Federation in 2003?
No, I told them in 2003 that if they ever got serious about it, our door was open to them. When all (that) confusion was going on, I called them and I received calls back. They said they were anxious to meet.
We met, and at that time I told them, 'Look, if nothing more comes of this than you get a better deal and you get some real definition for your future because you're meeting here with us, more power to you. I want to see your group flourish. I don't want to see it go backwards.'
And we (FLW Outdoors) have got a lot more to offer today than we did in 2003. We're a lot different today, in a better way. I'm talking bigger and better than ever.
