The Eastern Sports & Outdoors Show: Brought to You by….the NRA?

The National Rifle Association was selected from more than a dozen other bidders to run the next incarnation of the Eastern Sports and Outdoors Show in Harrisburg starting in 2014. The three-year deal comes after organizers cancelled the event in February following a decision by the England-based former organizers to ban the display of military-style assault rifles.

The cancellation of the 2013 outdoors show had an $80 million impact on the local Harrisburg area economy and further rankled gun owners and dealers who had announced a boycott after the ban was implemented.

NRA President David Keene says the event will now be known as the “Great American Outdoor Show,” and it will appeal to a bigger nationwide audience. The show previously averaged about a quarter-million visitors each year.

The 2014 Great American Outdoor Show will run from February 1st through 9th, 2014 in the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center in Harrisburg.