In partnership with the FayPenn Economic Development Council, the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) has been awarded a $25,000 grant from the Laurel Highlands Visitor Bureau. The marketing grant has been endowed to the USCAA to promote and increase attendance for the association’s Basketball National Championships. The Championships, held in Uniontown, Pennsylvania and hosted by Penn State Fayette, contributed over $500,000 of direct spending into the area in 2014.
In recent years the USCAA has made a concerted effort to increase its marketing presence in the Laurel Highlands area, with an aim to bring non-locals into the area during the week of the Basketball National Championships. Working in conjunction with the FayPenn Economic Development Council, the association expanded its Fayette County Hoops Festival, first held in 2013 during the week of the tournament. In 2014, the Hoops Festival encompassed four separate events. Those events, the USCAA Basketball Skills Competition, a 3-on-3 youth basketball tournament, the Downtown Celebration, and youth basketball clinic, attracted tournament participants and fans and connected them with local residents and businesses.
In 2013, the USCAA launched its standalone Basketball National Championships website, which promotes the tournament, Official Lodging Partner Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, and the attractions of the Laurel Highlands area. In the weeks leading up to the event, the USCAA distributes a wealth of information to its teams and fans about the Laurel Highlands region, things to do, outdoor activities, restaurants, and places to stay. Each tournament participant receives a welcome bag from the Uniontown Chamber of Commerce with local information on the vast array of activities available to them in the area.
Situated southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Laurel Highlands region is a popular area for hiking, hunting, fishing, and skiing. Tourist destinations include Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob houses, Nemacolin and Seven Springs resorts, the Flight 93 memorial, several historic battlefields, and more.
Grants from the Laurel Highlands Visitor Bureau are awarded to nonprofit organizations whose mission is directly related to tourism in the region. The USCAA will return to Fayette County with its Basketball National Championships through 2018.
-USCAA