I do not like the Pittsburgh Steelers. Growing up in Texas and surrounded by Dallas Cowboys fans (I was a Houston Oilers guy, myself), the Steelers were akin to the devil. I don’t much care for the Seattle Seahawks, either. That said, I was offered free tickets to the 2006 Super Bowl that featured these two teams playing one another for the NFL championship. So, of course I went. Not so much to root for a team, but to soak in a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
To be honest, I don’t remember much about the game. I think it was a slow one. But, I do remember the guy sitting in front of me was Michael Phelps, the swimmer with all the gold medals. The guy sitting behind me was Smokey Robinson, the singer with all the gold records. And the halftime show was the Rolling Stones. Official attendance for that event was 68,206. I’m guessing less than half of those sitting in the stands were hardcore fans of either team. This event popped into my head at the recent Academy Sports+Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk when someone referred to the event as the “Super Bowl of Bass Fishing.” Ray Scott coined this term decades ago to underline the importance and significance of our sport’s world championship when trying to convince nonendemic media that the tournament was worth covering. The moniker stuck, but based on the 2022 Classic held in Greenville this past March, the need to convince anyone that the Classic is a significant event has long since passed.
The Classic officially started with a kickoff party held the Thursday night before the first day of competition. This year, it was held at Fluor Field, home of the Greenville Drive, a minor league baseball team. More than 6,000 fans attended and enjoyed games, great food, drinks and a brilliant cover band (not the Rolling Stones, but they did play “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”). The next morning, a huge line formed outside the Greenville Convention Center in anticipation of the Bassmaster Classic Outdoors Expo presented by Marathon’s opening bell. Rabid bass fans filed in … and never quit coming throughout the three-day extravaganza. I don’t think Phelps was in the crowd, but Bill Dance was. As was Roland Martin, Jimmy Houston, Johnny Morris and a host of other legends of our sport.
Perhaps the most incredible spectacle of the Classic was happening an hour away from the expo, on the banks of Lake Hartwell, where the competitors blasted off each morning. Over the three days of competition, more than 12,000 fans lined the shore, coffee in hand, to cheer their favorite angler to victory. The atmosphere was electric.
As an aside, not everyone that wants to be at a Classic can be at a Classic (very Super Bowl-like, indeed). But Bassmaster LIVE brought the action to the masses. And there were masses. A startling number of fans logged on to watch the competition unfold. More than 28 million minutes of live action was viewed, alongside 23.5 million page views for the event (both record-breaking numbers).
The weigh-ins were held at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena, which was packed on Sunday for the final-day weigh-in show. And as we know now, Jason Christie won by a scant 5 ounces. A nail-biter of an ending that will not be forgotten by anyone in attendance. Because, unlike the biggest football game in the world, this event featured a fan base that lives the sport on display. When the confetti finally settled on the Classic stage, the final attendance numbers from the weekend exceeded 155,000, a new record and more than double the attendance of the Super Bowl I attended. This got me to thinking. Perhaps the NFL should start referring to the Super Bowl as the Bassmaster Classic of Football?
