Erie Sports Commission Awarded State Grant for Major League Fishing

Photo courtesy of Phenix Moore, Major League Fishing
 

The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development announced today that the Erie Sports Commission was awarded a $45,000 Sports Marketing and Tourism program (SMAT) grant to help off-set the costs of hosting Major League Fishing (MLF).

Twenty-four of the top professional anglers in the world traveled to Erie in August to participate in Major League Fishing’s General Tire Team Series B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup presented by Toyota. This six-day event was live streamed daily, providing more than 40 hours of coverage resulting in hundreds of thousands of video views and millions of social media impressions. In addition, the event will air on the Outdoor Channel as six two-hour episodes every Saturday afternoon starting in January, offering 72 hours of additional coverage with an anticipated audience of six million viewers.

“It is a tremendous honor to be one of the 10 counties to be awarded a SMAT program grant,” said Mark Jeanneret, executive director for the Erie Sports Commission. “State funding like this is integral to our ability to attract major events and we hope this exposure of our fishery to a national audience will result in additional tournaments as well as attract countless leisure anglers that will want to experience the same fishing scene featured during the tournament.”

The SMAT program was established to help attract high-quality, amateur and professional sporting events to Pennsylvania, with the goal of capitalizing on the influx of tourism that comes with hosting a major national event. “Despite being on Lake Erie, regularly rated as one of the top bass fisheries in the world, our community has never hosted a national fishing competition,” stated PA State Sen. Dan Laughlin in his letter of support for the Sports Commission’s SMAT application. “By securing one of only three qualifiers that will be held for MLF’s General Tire Team Series in the U.S. in 2024, the Erie Sports Commission has positioned our community to showcase itself on a level in the national fishing community that we have never experienced before.”

For more information about the Erie Sports Commission and its events visit eriesportscommission.com/events.