to negotiations with sponsors. However, even those who have been around a long time did it for years with little to no sponsor financial contributions. By the time we factor the hours and days put into operating events, they may break even for their personal investments several years into the venture. That’s their gamble, for sure, that’s business. You hope to start something and get it to a point where two, three or four years down the road, you can begin to recoup some of your investment and time. in fact - you must ... otherwise - those businesses shut down. We have several organizations in California that have been in operation for several to many years, and some of them are finally getting to a point that they can call themselves successful. Some of them even begin to look at ways to put more of what they receive on the sponsor end back into the payout, and some of them already do that for some of their events. The point behind this being that some of these organizations actually do work on rewarding their customers - which is what us tournament anglers are - with loyalty programs as a thank you for the years of patronage. The truth is that none of us would walk into a store, a movie theater or onto a golf course and demand a certain percentage of our money to be returned to us because we chose to shop, watch or play at their establishment. Yet, we do at fishing tournaments. The bottom line for the vast majority of us is that fishing is a recreational activity - a hobby; and not our occupation. There are some around us who have
been able to build a career out of fishing regionally, and others from our area have been able to make it a career nationally; but for most of us, it is nothing short of us spending our discretionary income to go to a movie or the fair - it is an activity. Now, with that said, we have the right to choose where we want to spend that discretionary income. We can research and sample the different options and decide which provides us the most value; the best experience for our dollar. We should also remember that the best thing to do in order to get the type of product we want is to provide constructive feedback to the supplier. if we find some component of the experience difficult, and we have an idea that we feel might improve it for us and other participants, then we should share it with the organization. But, if we continue to operate the way we are now - to criticize, boycott and do it ourselves that will leave us without options to pursue the hobby we love. Before long, we could find ourselves fishing nothing but the “Fruit Jar” tournaments of old. it took bass fishing many years to get past the renegade days of the fishing derby, where the sport was considered gambling and a field full of cheaters. let’s not put it back there by tearing everything down and isolating ourselves. invest in the process, work to build something that we all want with our local, regional and national organizations, and we can continue to have a thriving sport where all of us can play at whatever level we choose. We have opportunities, let’s not waste them.
24