ERIE, Pa.—The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development announced that the Erie Sports Commission was awarded a $45,000 Sports Marketing and Tourism program (SMAT) grant to help offset the costs of hosting Major League Fishing (MLF).
In August 2024, 24 professional anglers from around the world traveled to Erie for the Major League Fishing’s General Tire Team Series B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup presented by Toyota. The event, which lasted for six days was live-streamed with more than 40 hours of coverage. This coming January, more footage will air on the Outdoor Channel every Saturday afternoon as a six-part series, with each episode spanning two hours, for a total of 72 hours of additional footage.
The purpose of the SMAT program is to help draw amateur and professional sporting events to Pennsylvania, with the intention of capitalizing on the influx of tourism that often comes with hosting a major event.
“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.”
“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.”
