BASS Sale: Reporting Continues
Federation A Focus, But Nothing Announced Yet
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Source: Bassfan.com
Photo: BASS
Monday marked the 1-week anniversary of new BASS ownership.
Buyers Don Logan, Jerry McKinnis and Jim Copeland have addressed the media both directly and indirectly, and clearly, the BASS Federation Nation has emerged as an early focal point for the investor trio.
The Federation Nation is a principle business for BASS – but a business that lost size a half-decade ago when the Federation effectively split in two.
Today, according to regularly quoted figures, the Federation Nation stands at about 20,000 members – down from an historic high of around 50,000, then later 35,000 immediately prior to the TBF split.
Yet the Federation Nation number can’t really be held at a one-to-one ratio with rank-and-file membership or newsstand sales, since Federation Nation members tend to be the most active. The Federation Nation oversees youth programs, acts as lobby group and watchdog at the local and state levels, and functions somewhat as a liaison between BASS and the population at large.
But BASS doesn’t own the Federation Nation. Instead, the BASS Federation Nation is an affiliation group. The various chapters are each a separate corporation that chooses to affiliate with BASS and each other under the Federation Nation umbrella.
BASS, under ESPN ownership, continuously struggled to define its relationship with the Federation, which eventually led to the split. And later, as budgets dwindled, BASS eliminated the position of Federation Nation director.
New ownership hasn’t yet announced plans to re-create the director position. Currently, Jon Stewart serves as Federation Nation tournament manager at the Celebration, Fla. corporate headquarters, while Stacy Twiggs serves as youth director.
Fed Addressed at ‘Town Hall’ Meeting
According to Stewart, Logan, McKinnis and Copeland convened a “town hall meeting” at BASS headquarters the day after the sale closed. Although much of the meeting concerned the nuts and bolts of employment, such as benefits and org structure, Stewart said the ownership trio discussed the Federation Nation and “touched on their vision and the kind of direction they wanted to pursue.”
Photo: BASS
BASS Federation Nation tournament manager Jon Stewart was “excited” after the new ownership group convened a town-hall meeting at BASS headquarters.
“We came out of the meeting very excited about the direction and the positive vibe they (the new owners) were putting off,” Stewart added. “They said the Federation Nation’s going to be a focal point to just see what we could do to improve every aspect of it. We’re all excited about that.”
For Stewart, one thing he’d like to see improved is “coverage and content.” BASS under ESPN did for a short while provide live streaming of Divisional-level events, but that fell off when ESPN moved BASS live streaming to ESPN3.
And BASS used to televise the Federation Nation National Championship, something Stewart would like to see happen again. He’d also like to see a heavier content level in general for the Federation Nation on Bassmaster.com.
“Those are all things on my personal wish list,” he said. “I don’t know if we can get them all, but I definitely want to pursue them. And I want to tell the Federation Nation members out there that the future is looking very bright – very positive. I believe we have three new owners who believe in the Federation Nation. We’re going to have an opportunity to show them what the Federation Nation’s all about, and they’re going to going to give us that opportunity through the many different facets of our business.”
Several Presidents Positive About Change
The various chapter presidents met recently, as they do each year, at the Federation Nation National Championship. Aside from expected business, nothing much was discussed about the future, because the sale hadn’t closed yet.
The presidents might meet again at the upcoming Bassmaster Classic in February, although a meeting there could be problematic given travel schedules, prior commitments and budgets.
BassFan, however, spoke with several of the presidents this week. Each expressed positive feelings about the sale, and noted that a certain level of stagnation had set in during the ESPN decade.
Michael Cusano, New York BASS Chapter Federation Nation president, told BassFan: “I’m optimistic, because from a business perspective, I think we have three very interesting pieces. I see Mr. Logan as our executive and he brings a lot of good business sense with him. Then to have the financial knowledge of Mr. Copeland – it’s going to pay dividends and help us from the Federation perspective to get the necessary value and accounting we probably deserve. And to have Jerry – he’s going to be a great face for our organization. They’re a three-headed monster with the potential to bring us where we need to be.”
Toward that “value” and “accounting” end, Cusano said his state chapter for the last 3 years has developed in-depth, verified economic-impact statements – a policy he’d like to see adopted through the Federation Nation as a whole.
And Cusano, when asked to clarify or define his notion of where the Federations “need to be,” said: “I think it would be great to get the Federation Nation numbers back up to where they were before the split. I think growth in the sport is needed, and we definitely need a stronger youth and conservation direction to go along with the tournament-fishing component. The state-level and conservation issues are mounting, and we need a little more organized front to deal with some of those things.”
Utah president Rick Culver likewise sees opportunity to recruit members back who were lost in the split. “I think the sale’s a win-win for everybody within the Federation Nation,” Culver said. “I think it’s a chance to get back to our roots and, ideally, get the membership grown back up to what it was prior to the split.”
Iowa was one state that wasn’t heavily affected by the split. The state nearly as a whole stayed with BASS and remains there today.
Iowa president Tom Bowler thus doesn’t foresee a huge effort toward re-recruitment in his state. Instead, the 40-plus-year Federation member simply feels comforted by the Federation Nation’s new position of priority within BASS.
“I’ve been around this a long, long time, so it’s been quite a rollercoaster ride with ESPN,” Bowler said. “But I feel confident that the new owners do have the Federation at heart. In defense of ESPN, I feel they purchased something where they had no idea what they had. And I feel that in the Disney world, as large and as huge as it was, BASS was pretty insignificant.
“For now, I’d like to not really see much change until the dust settles,” Bowler added. “I’m one to assess what’s going on and then, instead of react to a problem, act on a problem. We’ll just have to see how it plays out, but I don’t think they’ll make any drastic changes right away. But who knows?”