FLEX is in the milking stage. the higher-ups are restructing their deals and prepping their resumes, and of course planning their spin-offs. It'll be split, restructured, resold, everyone will get rich, and FLEX will get new ownership. They'll try to keep content the same, but with the PDI taking a bigger piece, they'll slowly get locked out of more and more coverage and more importantly, athletes. You see...
MD is planning ahead- signing all the up and coming pros, and making nice with the PDI.
Think about it: Vic M. Branch. DHenry. Melvin. Dexter. Cormier. Cook. Priest. Gustavo. These are all MD athletes. Tell me that lineup wouldn't look good on a PDI stage. And suppose 8 or 10 top MD pros decide to go simultaneously? It would GUT the IFBB O lineup. Jay, Gunter, and Coleman will likely be done inside 3-4 years. MD is going to be the PDI's best friend. We already heard J Romano brekaing rank and telling Pro Bbing weekly that he thinks the PDI will be quite strong in 3 years.
Anyway, that's what I would do if I was MD. Treated like crap at IFBB events. Unable to speak with Cutler, Coleman, Gunter. Locked out of all the top guys for so long. Tell me they wouldn't love to become the next powerhouse with PDI- where FLEX is now with the IFBB. Where the athletes go, the fans go. And if MD can make sweet enough deals with the SuppCo's, even if it means taking an initial financial hit, they could come out on top for the next decade 
I'll take the "Wait-and-see" attitude. I remember having similar thoughts when the World Bodybuilding Federation hit. All Weider did was replace the 13 guys who went to the WBF with new stars, like Kevin Levrone, Flex Wheeler, Paul Dillet, etc.
If the aforementioned guys go to this new organization, there'll be other guys waiting in the wings to take their place.
As for the magazine issue, how many times has FLEX been on the brink of death, according to some people here on this forum?
Regarding the relationship between the IFBB and the folks at MD, aren't you leaving out a few items? It ain't like the guys at that magazine were boy scouts. When Andreas Munzer died, the MD guys crucified the IFBB brass, blaming them for setting the conditions that caused his death. Also recall that they made claim after claim that guys were dying or getting really sick, trying to replicate the size and freakiness of Dorian Yates. That would explain why Yates flatly turned MD down, when asked to write for the magazine.
Not to mention the fact that one of MD's writers has a nasty reputation for starting rumors and flat out LYING!!!!
A most memorable example of such happened about 10 years ago, involving claims that a Twinlab guy got screwed at the 1996 North American Championship. This writer made the statement that the eventual overall champion apologized to the allegedly-screwed competitor, saying that guy deserved to win.
Two problems, though: (1) The writer, who started all this mess DID NOT ATTEND THE SHOW, according to his article; (2) A number of fans who did attend the contest (and the winner of that show, himself) wrote letters to MuscleMag, stating that this writer was lying through his teeth. There was no controversy at that show and the guy who won did so, hands down, both his class and the overall.
Not to mention all the flap about "politics" and non-Weider athletes not being able to win the big one. Never mind the fact that Lee Haney won his last two Olympias while working for Twinlab and MD, or the fact that Ronnie Coleman won his first Olympia, working for MET-Rx and his last two Olympias, working for BSN.
And, lest we forget, the bad blood started, due to the supplement competition, when the Weiders had their supplement company and the Blechmans owned Twinlab. As for the exclusive contract business, Joe Weider addressed that in an interview he did with MuscleMag over a decade ago. Weider put it this way,
"If you own a business, would you pay someone's salary and have them work for someone else?"When the interviewer suggested that letting a bodybuilder appear in other mags would give the athlete greater exposure, Weider stated that other supplement companies should pitch in and split the deal with him. He later claim that, when it came to his magazines, he didn't even use 90% of the athletes he had under contract.
