The tours here require sponsors who need to be willing to pony up a LOT of cash. Hopefully the state of California sees the positives of the television coverage, perhaps some tourism and other benefits of having the race, and not just the negatives of congested traffic, etc. I believe that #1) AMGEN must see some benefit from their sponsorship to omake it worthwhile (which might be difficult considering how sponsorship for races and even the proteams change constantly) and #2) the state of california must see some positive benefit where some tax dollars can be diverted to help fund this event. If that is the case, then after 3 years, this might be as important as the Amstel Gold for instance. For USA pro cycling, I hope that it works out.

PS. As much as I could hope it would be so, ToC wouldn't become as large as any of the grand tours...now how about a tour of the southwest (CA, NV, AZ, UT) as a Grand tour? I would think it more likely (Though still darn near impossible).