Greenville to Host 2008 Bassmaster Classic

[RestedTraveler]

A few photos from this afternoon...

I forgot to mention the canned intro played ahead of the weigh-in called Greenville "Greensville, South Carolina" ...

Banners downtown, as we've seen for a few weeks now:

A few of these are about the streets of Greenville this weekend:

Judy Wong carries home the WBT hardware:

B.A.S.S. founder, Ray Scott:

Todd Auten of Lake Wylie:

Mike Wurm of Hot Springs, Arkansas:

Peter Thliveros of St. Augustine, Florida:

[Galley]

What beautiful weather on Saturday (especially compared to Friday). I know the Anglers gotta love it.

[GvilleSC]

Thanks for sharing your experience, RT. Sounds like it was truly a success!

AND a few more people have been introduced to our City!

[RestedTraveler]

My pleasure! It was a fun weekend! I met people from all over the place just waiting in line to get into the Bi-Lo Center (Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, etc.)! Everyone with whom I spoke was very pleasantly surprised with Greenville...it wasn't anything like they had expected.

I've got some more photos to post from the final weigh-in, too, but it'll have to wait.

In other news, as I mentioned over on SSC, the earliest that the Bassmaster Classic could return to Greenville would be 2012, but everybody that I heard speak said how much they love it here and how much they can't wait to come back. Ray Scott, himself, said "we'll be back!"

The next three sites were announced on Thursday:

• 2009: Shreveport-Bossier City, LA (On the Red River)

• 2010: Birmingham, AL (Competition Waters TBD)

• 2011: New Orleans, LA (Competition Waters TBD)

[B&R]

Here are some links to comments about the tournament.

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/story/970846.html

http://www.gettingreel.com/getting-reel-award-february/

http://www.annistonstar.com/sports/2008/as...l-8b27x1627.htm

[RestedTraveler]

Here are some links to comments about the tournament.

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/story/970846.html

http://www.gettingreel.com/getting-reel-award-february/

http://www.annistonstar.com/sports/2008/as...l-8b27x1627.htm

[RestedTraveler]

Estimated $13 million-plus in direct economic impact on Greenville County.

[Greenville]

Estimated $13 million-plus in direct economic impact on Greenville County.

[vicupstate]

I thought we heard last week that the Classic's total impact on the Upstate was $43 million. Given the $13 million impact on Greenville County, that would leave a $30 million impact on other Upstate counties. That doesn't sound right to me, because I assume that Greenville County (being the host county) would have received the most impact. Perhaps the other article measured some sort of indirect impact as well?

[Greenville]

Lake Hartwell is in Anderson County, which probably received the lion share of Hotel nights.

[GvilleSC]

I realize that, but there is no way Anderson County's hotels and retail establishments received $30 million in economic impact. There simply aren't that many hotels and restaurants in Anderson to generate that kind of revenue over the course of several days. I am very curious to know how "economic impact" was measured here.

[RestedTraveler]

Well, the Greenville News article itself says this: "...And the indirect economic impact in the Upstate surely would be a multiple of the conservative $13 million impact cited by Greenville tourism officials."

So this is a conservative estimate, no doubt measuring the impact from out-of-state visitors. The intangibles and indirect impact and the impact of locals driving into town for the expo/weigh-ins/etc. are probably far greater, I would agree.

[CarolinaSouth]

Well i hope that the Bassmaster Elite "Carolina Clash" at Lake Murray May 15-18 will have just as much of an economic impact for Columbia and the Midlands area as the 2008 Bassmaster Classic did for Greenville and the Upstate! I mean i know that it isn't a big event, but the main thing is some good exposure for the area...and that's great for y'all city and the whole state of SC when people leave with a good impression of one of our cities...

[GvilleSC]

Well i hope that the Bassmaster Elite "Carolina Clash" at Lake Murray May 15-18 will have just as much of an economic impact for Columbia and the Midlands area as the 2008 Bassmaster Classic did for Greenville and the Upstate! I mean i know that it isn't a big event, but the main thing is some good exposure for the area...and that's great for y'all city and the whole state of SC when people leave with a good impression of one of our cities...

[CorgiMatt]

This fishing tournament is mentioned in the attached article about Pure, a major fishing tackle company that is moving its headquarters from Iowa to South Carolina. Our state really is a fisherman's paradise.

http://www.thestate.com/local/story/459493.html