The Upper Chesapeake Bay Elite Series, scheduled for July 26-29, 2018, will not launch from the Havre de Grace (Md.) City Yacht Basin after the Havre de Grace City Council failed to approve an application to use the facility at its meeting Tuesday night, according to a report in the Baltimore Sun.
The move may force B.A.S.S. to find an alternate launch facility for its eighth Elite Series tournament of the season. When the Elite Series last visited the Chesapeake Bay in August 2015, anglers launched from Anchor Marina and North East Community Park in North East, Md. The weigh-ins took place at the same park.
When the 2018 schedule was announced last July, B.A.S.S. tabbed Havre de Grace as the host community with the weigh-ins taking place at Cal Ripken Stadium in nearby Aberdeen, where the Class-A Aberdeen Ironbirds baseball team plays in the New York-Penn League.
City Council President David Glenn wasn’t a fan of the impact the tournament would have on the marina’s slip holders and having the fish transported to a baseball stadium in a neighboring city for the weigh-ins. It’s approximately a 15-minute drive from the launch facility to the stadium.
“There were too many unanswered questions,” Glenn was quoted as saying during the portion of the meeting when council members offer comments. “And while some people might say there’s an economic benefit to the city, I didn’t see a tangible benefit, most of them are intangible.”
Glenn added that he was not involved in negotiations between B.A.S.S. and Visit Harford!, the tourism agency for Harford County, to bring the event to the area, but he mentioned several alternative weigh-in site options in Havre de Grace at Tuesday’s meeting.
Glenn added that he would support any event “that will bring positive visibility to Havre de Grace,” provided the businesses, citizens and customers aren’t negatively affected, but didn’t expect the economic impact from the Elite Series tournament to be significant.
A B.A.S.S. official said in an email to BassFan that the organization has a backup plan and will be announcing the alternate arrangements in the near future.
To read the entire article, click here.
