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If you’re going to play in the big city, you’d better be the best show in town or else not be competing against whatever attraction is the best. There’s also the issue or driving and parking. Houston, like Atlanta and DC and San Francisco, is known for its terrible traffic. As one writer opined, “Bass fishermen in their trucks do not want to go downtown to watch a weigh-in.” That may be true, but it would behoove any tournament organization that agrees with that sentiment to find workarounds – either hold the weigh-ins in less majestic, more accessible venues, or else offer up some sort of help in the way of transport and/or parking.
The bias against venues like Pittsburgh and Chicago (and potentially any western city) is not just anti-urban. It’s also “anti-new.”
There are plenty of fans and plenty of members of the industry who would be thrilled to never go anywhere but Shreveport, Greensville, and Tulsa and occasionally to the slightly larger venue of Birmingham. We’ve had great Classics in all of those places, but to me that seems awfully short-sighted.
Sure, it’s probably an easier sales job, as those cities likely have a harder time bringing in tourist
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dollars than places like New Orleans or Las Vegas. And yes, many of the best fisheries are in remote areas – they may be good precisely because they are far from major population centers. Nevertheless, BASS and FLW have held tournaments with solid weights on waters adjacent to Washington, DC (6 th biggest metropolitan area in the US), Detroit (14 th ), Baltimore (21 st ) and Charlotte