ROCK HILL, S.C. — The American Cornhole League’s World Championship is being held this week and competitors could take home thousands of dollars in prizes.
The tournament started Monday at the Rock Hill Sports and Events Center, which has brought in about 2,000 players.
The popular tournament will bring millions of dollars in revenue to the city.
This event brought in about $2.6 million last year.
Officials expect it to bring in more than $4 million this year.
Rock Hill-native Dusty Thompson started playing cornhole at social events and now he competes professionally.
“This is like any other sport,” Thompson told Channel 9. “Everybody wants to win, but they don’t want to see you do bad. They want to see you succeed. So there is more of a family atmosphere than a sport.”
The tournament has drawn players of every age to the event center in Rock Hill for three years.
Its success led to the league moving its headquarters to the city.
“Not only do they have their world championships here every year, their headquarters are across the hall and their manufacturing plant is here,” said Brian Jones, a supervisor at the Rock Hill Sports and Events Center. “But they brought jobs, 50-plus jobs to Rock Hill.”
He said this year’s event is the largest and it keeps growing.
City leaders and officials hope coverage by ESPN will create more fans of the sport and ensure future growth of the event.
The winners will be crowned on Sunday.
“ESPN8: The Ocho” is a play on regular ESPN programming that was in the movie, “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.”
The fictional “ESPN8: The Ocho” show will come to life Friday on ESPN2 from Rock Hill.
(Watch the video below: Cornhole tournament played to raise money in honor of fallen York Co. detective)
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