La Crosse gets $20,000 Grant

[hookncook]

La Crosse, WI- La Crosse gets a $20,0000 grant from the Wisconsin Department of Tourism for the B.A.S.S. Elite Fishing to be held in La Crosse June 19-24, 2012.

This will be the first time the series will be coming to Wisconsin and will be the only series tournament held in the Midwest. “The city wants this to be a success” said Mayor Harter. “By promoting tourism in our area, we are sharing the beauty of our area”.

This series stop will bring in an estimated 1.3 million dollars and roughly 8,000-12,000 spectators to the La Crosse area. The event will also present four- one hour television shows on ESPN and Outdoor Channel, producing an earned potential of roughly one million dollars. According to Dave Clements, director of the La Crosse Area Visitors and Convention Bureau “people are already fishing preparing for this tournament. They are staying here on weekends and spending their tourism dollars almost a year before the event has started.”

Sponsors of the event are Best Western Riverfront, City of La Crosse, and the Wisconsin Department of Tourism.

Stephanie Klett, Department Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Tourism recognizes the west coast of Wisconsin “there are great tournaments on the Great Lakes, wonderful tournaments on the Winnebago; but the west coast is the best coast. ‘Come on, there’s 130 species of fish in the Upper Mississippi River. Why wouldn’t B.A.S.S. want to come here?”

Scott Gartner, owner of Lethal Weapon Jigs is very excited to have the event here. “It’s pretty neat to have the superbowl of bass fishing here in La Crosse.” Scott competes in bass tournaments state wide and is looking forward to the amount of tourism this series is bringing to La Crosse. “This is a chance for an average guy to see a role model in the fishing industry like VanDam or Parker and actually watch them fish in person!”.

The Grant is from the “Ready, Set, Go” grant from the Department of Tourism. “The most amount of money any organization could get is 20,000″ Klett explained. “filling out the grant application is a lot like dental work, but Dave did it!”. Klett recognizes the sports market as recession proof. “despite the economy, people are still traveling, and they are still buying sporting equipment.:

[Central Bassman]

I'm glad to see they are putting effort into making this event a great event. Will show BASS great things to help bring more tournaments this way.

[bassNspear]

cant agree more. Happy for them and pumped for it to come up here.

[ikeslayer]

“This is a chance for an average guy to see a role model in the fishing industry like VanDam or Parker and actually watch them fish in person!”.

.:

Who is Parker? Hank? Janet? - neither will be there. Is there some new guy i should know about for my fantasy team?

[Cecil]

No, they meant hank. I also like the part where she talks about all of the species and why wouldnt they want to come here. Well, they are only after 2 of the species...