GMMAT

I sent David Farbman an e-mail or two on Monday.....indicating my position on his WHA endeavor. I'll give the man credit for this.....he wanted to talk. I gave him my phone number....and we spoke, late yesterday afternoon.

I won't say I'm on board with his concept.....but if what he's telling me is true......(and I have no reason to believe that it isn't)....my view has changed DRAMATICALLY on this subject.

Before anyone flames ME.....understand that I was a BIG "anti" until yesterday afternoon. Let's just say that "today"....I'm willing to give him/them the benefit of the doubt (innocent until proven guilty).

If you have a specific concern (and I did).....I'll let you know everything that was told to me.....(If in fact said concern was addressed). I'll say this.....if you e-mail him YOUR concern....I have NO reason to think he won't call you, too.

Like I said....I'm not on-board with the concept, but I'm not nearly AS "anti" as I was before talking to him.

Jeff

HAZCON7

Please share the highlights of your conversation.

At this point I think the whole subject is moot anyhow... the WHA is all but dead.
But it would be interesting to read his latest spin.

GMMAT

Hazcon:

I talked to him for THIRTY minutes....and I think my post sort of speaks for itself. If you have a specific concern....I'll tell you if we talked about it. I can't really compress our conversation into 5 talking points that I wouldn't be giving a fair chance by not explaining, fully.

Also....like him or not (and I have NO reason to like OR dislike the man.....other than to say it took some guts to call me....after the e-mails I sent....lol), HE doesn't think his concept is "dead".

Jeff

HAZCON7

SB, respectfully, why even post this thread if you aren't going to give at least one highlight of the conversation?
Otherwise you only appear to have gone to the dark side.

Finch

Please, go on.

GMMAT

OK.....He asked me what bothered me about the concept (SPECIFICALLY). I went into my list......but one thing was....the $$. I told him that, to me...hunting was more of a spiritual endeavor.....and something that made me more of a man. I KNOW I said I'd be LESS of a man if I couldn't/didn't hunt. I told him that when my dad was a boy.....people like Carl Hubbel and Mickey Mantle......and other great players of the baseball world were GODS to him and his friends. What's spoiled that image for kids JUST after "my" era......is $$. I remember a few years ago.....Manny Ramirez was making $11M a year. He had a clause in his contract that said he got $50K if he made the All-Star roster. Well.....to make the roster....you had to be in the dugout. Manny was on the Injured Reserve list.....but took the roster spot......denying some player maybe the most magical moment in his life.......a chance to make the all-star roster. When told of this.....Joe Morgan says on-air....."If I'm paying somebody $11M a year.....they ought to pay ME $50K if they DON'T make the all-star roster.

Translation.....Money has corrupted baseball (for many). If money is allowed to corrupt hunting .....even more than it plready has......then I see a way of life that I love being the big LOSER in this endeavor.

His answer......well.....the money isn't what we think it is (in terms of prize money). It's nowhere NEAR what some have stated here (or won't be in the final outcome). The guys who are the hunters.....NO ONE makes near $100K a yr.....no one is "rich"......and they're, for the most part.....just dedicated hunters.

I went into a point that I thought was valid. Would the money make the hunters compromise their ethics? Take bad shots? NOT TAKE a wounded/maimed animal???

His answer......they're penalized SEVERELY (basically out of the competition) for animals not recovered. They're penalized for bad shots. It's MANDATORY that wounded animals be killed and a contestant would be PENALIZED if he didn't take that animal. When I asked about how they would ever know.....he said that everything had to be caught on tape.....and they would be checking the cameras to make sure that no tapes were altered. Alter a tape......you're gone.

This is what I was told......and is a tidbit of ONE POINT of our conversation.

Jeff

quiksilver

I don't think his concept is dead at all... IMO, he was victimized by a P.R.snowball-effect of a few very opinionated individuals with a little bit of influence blowing up at the idea early, then everyone who can't form an independent opinion jumped on board, and it was a tidal wave of bad publicity and message board whining.

Luckily, this guy has enough money to buy and sell us all, so he doesn't really care what we think or say. He's gonna do what he wants to do anyway. I reviewed their concept, and I thought it was brilliant. Rough around the edges, but fine conceptually.

He has a vision of a bassmasters meets buckmasters campaign, and he's probably BENEFITTED from all the bad publicity, because now EVERYONE knows what the WHA is, and we'll all be sure to tune in at least once and pay more attention to the sponsors/hunters/etc...

I used to work with an attorney who said "No Publicity is Bad Publicity." The sad thing is that I'm starting to think it's true.

JMonsterZUMBO

gobbler-

i would like to hear more...

People were eager to attack this idea without ever seeing/hearing about the product. no one really knows what the WHA will bring to the market.. Thats why I encourage understanding the facts and what is REALLY going on.

Not this internet chatter- fueled by 5-6 fanatics

GMMAT

Hey guys....I was NOT a fan of the original concept. Here's a copy of my original e-mail to
David:

Which was followed up by THIS response to him (When he asked if I had seen his latest press release).

Now.....does THIS sound like I was on his side.....lol?

I'm not NOW, either....but I'll say it again....it took a lot of guts to call me after that exchange....and it was at HIS persistence. I'll give the man credit for wanting to open a dialogue.

jeff

Germ

Jeff great post, I too talked to him for about 5 mins, and that was 5 min to long. Farbman is a salesman and a very good one.

JMZ no matter what he did when this came out the fact he was drugging deer was not going to fly.

Now he has change his tune and wants to make nice. To all remember how farbman treated us in the pass. We were all fantics, nuts had no idea what we were talking about. Farbam had the "Vision from God" line.

Jeff I respect your choice, but my guess is you will not be supporting this idea. It is nice they have all these rules, but it is still killing deer in a cage.

They can only kill a "Certain size" deer, the really big ones need to be saved for the customers next week.

Just becareful when talking to Farbman he has his own agenda, and it has nothing to do with saving hunting.