FLW changes gears..

Dear Jim Dicken:

Please review the following open letter to FLW Tour anglers from Irwin Jacobs. If you wish to be removed from our mailing lists, click on the link at the bottom of this e-mail. If you need additional information, I can be reached at:[email protected] or 270.252.1607. Thank you.


August 10, 2006

Open letter from Irwin Jacobs

I recently received several e-mails and calls from anglers who compete in our FLW Tour events regarding our proposed 2007 tournament payouts. 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.

In offering $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.

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; 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. If competitive fishing is going to continue to grow and be recognized as a true professional sport, then we must not only say it, but we must do it like professionals. I hope every angler that competes in our FLW
Tour events understands and agrees with our revised payout changes for 2007.

In closing, I want to take this opportunity to personally thank those of you who came forward and expressed your opinions in the interest of growing our sport, not only for yourself but for all concerned.

With personal regards to everyone, I remain, your friend,

Irwin L. Jacobs


REVISED 2007 WAL-MART FLW TOUR PURSES

$1,000,000 QUALIFIERS
PLACE PRO BONUS CO-ANGLER BONUS
1 100000 25000 20000 5000
2 50000 10000
3 40000 9000
4 30000 8000
5 20000 7000
6 19000 6000
7 18000 5000
8 17000 4000
9 16000 3000
10 15000 2000
11-15 12500 1500
16-20 12000 1400
21-25 11500 1300
26-30 11000 1200
31-40 10500 1100
41-50 10000 1050
51-60 2500 1050
61-75 2000 800
76-100 100
BB 750 500


$1,500,000 OPENS
PLACE PRO BONUS CO-ANGLER BONUS
1 150000 50000 30000 10000
2 75000 10000
3 50000 9000
4 40000 8000
5 30000 7000
6 29000 6000
7 28000 5000
8 27000 4000
9 26000 3000
10 25000 2000
11-15 15000 1500
16-20 14000 1400
21-25 13000 1300
26-30 12000 1200
31-40 11000 1100
41-50 10000 1000
51-60 10000 900
61-75 7000 800
76-100 4000 760
BB 1000 500