Bassmaster is the most widely recognized brand within competitive bass fishing. The organization has a global membership and produces competitive tournament trails and events, including the Bassmaster Classic, often referred to as the “Super Bowl of Bass Fishing.”
Eric Lopez, Director of Event Operations at Bassmaster, sat down with SDM to discuss tournaments, trends and what Bassmaster seeks in host communities.
Sports Destination Management: Bassmaster has so many events.
Eric Lopez: We do — a lot of my work has to do with the Elite Series and the Bassmaster Classic, but the organization is sort of like baseball, which has not just Major League but the minors, youth leagues and so on.
SDM: Who fishes in which events?
Lopez: The Opens are made up of a mix of hardcore anglers or those hoping to turn pro. The Bass Nation events are for the weekend warriors. We also have designated events for high school and college students. The Bassmaster Elite Series is the highest level. Entry is capped at around 100 anglers so you have to qualify each year. There is no growth in that field.
SDM: You mentioned high school and college events.
Lopez: Bass fishing is a scholarship sport in college, so more high schools are stepping up their programs and really putting resources behind them. Several years ago, we started offering the Bassmaster High School Combine, which is modeled after the football combine.
SDM: Have you had a lot of interest?
Lopez: It sells out every year. We’re seeing numerous college coaches attend and these days, schools are giving out more than a million dollars in scholarship money so if you’re a student angler, it’s a really good place to be.
SDM: Switching gears to the event side, what do you look for when you’re doing site selection for the Bassmaster Classic?
Lopez: Because the Classic is held in March, we need a location that is warm that time of year and obviously has the infrastructure for fishing. The Classic is an event that has experienced phenomenal growth; we can now expect to see more than 100,000 people there, so the city needs to be able to host those numbers.
The Classic has three days of competition and several years ago, we added a kickoff party. It’s a true citywide event. We need a weigh-in area; that’s usually a basketball arena. We need a convention center with about 250,000 square feet of space for our trade show and other events.
We use six hotels and that’s not even taking into account the fans who will attend so we need a location with a significant number of hotels and good proximity to an airport, since people fly in not just from all over the U.S. but from all over the world. You need a plethora of restaurants, good transportation, things for visitors to do — we actually have people on our staff who work on the Classic year-round.
Our Elite Series events are outdoors. All the activities are held waterside. We like to look for a city park or lakefront with a ramp for the boats to launch and dock, in close proximity to our stage. We need ample space for our sponsors and plenty of things for families to do.
Orange, Texas, for example, has turned theirs into a giant festival with 35,000 people attending over four days. When we’re done with weigh-ins, the party keeps going with live music, fireworks, dancing, bounce houses — not every city has the bandwidth to do something like that.
SDM: Fishing is also being showcased on social media.
Lopez: That’s true; often, a clip shows up with someone catching a fish and the next thing you know, it has 10,000 likes. People are livestreaming their fishing and there are a lot of viewers.
SDM: And it’s a sport that you can never get too old to play.
Lopez: Yes, exactly. Fishing can carry you into your older years. SDM
About the Author
