The Economics of Professional Racing Tours
Does anyone have any idea what the sources and uses of funds are for a professional tour? Tour of Georgia just chose to sit out for a second year. Some internet threads show Missouri on the bubble and California growing.
Georgia was a cause tour, with sponsor money going to a charity. Amgen sponsors CA and some of the CA tour money goes to cancer research. I don't know what the story is with MO.
It would seem that GA should have held back some money to carry through without a sponsor, but I don't know the scale of things.
More specifically, where does most of the money come from and where does most of it go in running a tour. Anyone out there with some insight? I don't know WHY the tours cannot sustain themselves.
By comparison, non-racing rides seem to work reasonably well with RAGBRAI leading the way. I'm guessing that is net positive for the Register. Totally different events to be sure. Racing Tours must have huge fixed costs or near zero revenue stream. . .