PAA Positions Its Series Despite Soft Market

Both Bassmaster Elite Series and FLW Tour pros have grown accustomed to the Eastern FLW Series option. Yes, there was a direct schedule overlap this year, but in general, the Series enjoyed strong fields with a tour-level payout of $100,000 for 1st place and $10,000 through 50th.

Although fields lagged in the final two events this season, pros were still shocked to hear

last week's news that the Eastern Series would be shuttered next year.

A strong spotlight immediately shifted to the Professional Anglers Association (PAA) and its fledgling PAA Series.

But a few days later, FLW Outdoors reinstated the Eastern Series, but at half the entry fee and half the payout of the traditional offering. That put the Eastern Series roughly parallel with the PAA series in terms of format.

Anglers can begin registering for the Eastern Series today, but there's no news yet on next year's PAA Series – except that it'll be called the Bass Pro Shops PAA Series. Still, interest level in the PAA's offering is extremely high, especially among BASS pros who can't justify entering the FLW Series with its Elite Series schedule conflict.

More on that in a minute. First, a look at how the PAA arrived at where it is today.

Background

The seeds of the PAA were planted in the late 1990s, when anglers grew frustrated over the new FLW Tour's restrictive logo policy. That's when rumblings of an independent angler tour began to surface.

Major companies were rumored to be interested in the new tour, which the pros were doing their best to keep under wraps. But as 2000 drew to a close, the new tour hadn't formed yet. America started talking about a recession and the financier the PAA had found apparently wanted more control than the anglers were willing to give.

Then a catalyst surfaced in 2001: BASS announced its Shootout tournament, which would occur a week before the 2002 Bassmaster Classic, and that sent the pros into orbit.

The PAA formed at that time with an initial 100 members, and the ranks soon grew to about 120. BASS compromised on the Shootout and it seemed to be a new era in fishing in which pros could affect league decisions.

The PAA, at that time, was governed by an elected board – Paul Elias, Rick Clunn, Kevin VanDam, Denny Brauer, Ray Sedgwick, Rob Kilby, Mark Davis, Gary Klein and George Cochran - although Elias was effectively the face and voice of the group.

In November 2001, Scot Laney (former BassFan COO and author of the Laney Opinion) became PAA executive director.

All the while, the PAA largely functioned with a mission to address angler concerns, and a separate series of PGA-like tournaments was no more than background chatter.

Laney resigned as PAA executive director in spring 2004 and the PAA dissolved shortly afterward.

One year later, anglers organized again, and a reborn PAA formed at a meeting held at the Table Rock Bassmaster Tour. This marked the beginning of the modern PAA, with Kevin VanDam as president, several elected officers and a new executive director in Gene Ellison.

When BASS announced its Elite Series later that year, with soaring entry fees and smaller fields, the PAA showed its newfound ability to serve pro interests. Members of the group met with FLW Outdoors chairman Irwin Jacobs, and soon afterward FLW Outdoors created the FLW Series. The new Series effectively created a home for BASS pros who planned to opt out of the Elite Series, and at the same time gave FLW Tour pros another option to compete.

A year after that (summer 2006), the PAA announced that it would sanction and supply anglers for the new Toyota Texas Bass Classic (TTBC), to be held the following year.

The TTBC went off successfully, and again the following year (2008).

Then the PAA announced a new three-event PAA Series, with the 2009 TTBC as icing on the cake to those who performed well in the PAA points.

That third TTBC occurred 2 weeks ago and winner Dave Lefebre pocketed $250,000 before an estimated crowd of about 30,000 fishing and country-music fans.

Note though that the TTBC operated under a 3-year contract, and thus there's no guarantee of another TTBC in 2010. Yet the expectation is that, given the event's success, another contract will be signed.

However, the PAA announced earlier this year its intent to add a no-entry-fee championship to its 2010 Series season, along with a series of all-star events in 2011. That sweetened the PAA Series pot considerably, especially since there's whisperings that if the TTBC does keep going, it could be crafted more as a TV-style championship, possibly with boats reserved for star-power veterans who can draw crowds. So the PAA would need a functional championship of its own to validate the PAA Series.

Certainly, the TTBC gives the PAA Series significant legs. It offers a tour-level championship payout, a strong contingent of spectators, and a sound media package with a taped broadcast on CBS. It might not be on par with the Forrest Wood Cup for overall monies, which is the carrot for FLW Series anglers, but it's a powerful draw nonetheless. And a championship could deliver the final building block.

Right now, the pros, fans and even manufacturers are watching to see if the PAA can deliver and bolster its PAA Series beyond what it offered this season.

Current Plans

According to PAA president John Crews, the organization is very much aware of the opportunity at hand, yet aware too that it faces a challenging tournament market. Currently, the PAA's "still defining" how it'll position its 2010 entry-fee/payout structure, Crews said. "But more than likely it's going to land in the middle – in-between a Stren and (traditional) FLW Series. I don't think we're going to stray too far from this year, which was a $1,500 entry fee and 150-boat field.

"Obviously we want the purse to be as large as possible, but it's the entry fees we have to control directly," Crews added. "And we don't want to compete with the FLW Tour and Elite Series, because they're so good at what they do. We don't need another one of those. We need to be the PAA Bass Pro Shops Series."

Bass Pro Shops was recently announced as title sponsor of the 2010 PAA Series. E21 Carrot Stix was title sponsor this year.

And while Crews couldn't comment on whether the TTBC has been cemented for next year, he did note how critical the event is to the PAA Series and members in general.

"Up to this point, the TTBC has been extremely important for the life of the PAA, and it's the main reason the PAA is where it is – because of our partnership with Toyota and the TTBC. We look forward to continuing that partnership, but we don't have anything to announce right now."

Media Angles

History's shown that any successful tournament series, at least at the Stren/Open level and beyond, must have a strong media component.

While the TTBC media is handled apart from the PAA – Barrett Productions films the event and publicity's handled by the TTBC, Octagon and other parties – the PAA drives media for its PAA Series.

TV production is handled by Careco Multimedia and broadcasts air on WFN and the Versus Network.

The PAA does maintain a website with original content, yet there's a sense – at least amongst its membership – that the PAA must expand its independent media presence for the Series to attract more dollars and thus increase its purse without a requisite rise in entry fees. And clearly, the comparable Eastern FLW Series did lack the media punch the FLW Tour has come to enjoy and relied primarily on in-house, rather than independent media coverage, which may have been a factor in its struggles.

About plans for media, Crews said: "We're evaluating all aspects of the organization, and definitely the media aspect is a big component. We're negotiating with some TV networks to figure out where our home is going to be. And we're looking at stepping up our media coverage all the way around.

"From early on this year, our plan was to have four events next year and not conflict with any FLW Tour or Elite Series events," Crews added. "We've been moving toward that with all the planning and involvement so far, because we want to allow the FLW Tour and Elite Series guys to basically fill in the gaps with more pro-level tournaments. We're doing this to complement the anglers on both circuits and recruit new anglers as well. We're not really going to change anything now that the FLW (Eastern) Series came back. And as a whole we're glad it did – it creates more opportunities for anglers to make a living."

Notable

> To read a BassFan interview about the PAA's 2-year plan, announced in summer of this year, click here.

> Crews noted that the PAA will survey its tour-level members over the coming weeks to help determine its final entry-fee/payout structure for 2010.