litesleeper

Philadelphia Pro Cycling Championship needs $500,000 commitment due to sponsor loss and city's costs or it will be canceled next week.
https://www.philly.com/philly/news/ho...bike_race.html

I put this here instead of the professional race forum because the event attracts and generates a lot of bike riding attention and interest in the local area among non racing riders.

AngryScientist 

wow, that wouldnt be good, i was planning on going down to watch/drink this year.

WCroadie

That stinks, I hope they get the money needed to have the race continue, if Mayor Nutter was smart, he would give the 500k needed to generate 15-20 million for the city, but he's not that bright. Mr. Chauner puts on a world class race and it would be a shame for it to get cancelled this year.

plpete

wow i really hope this doesn't happen. I just got into cycling last year and was really looking foreword to seeing some pro guys take on the "wall". $500,000 is a lot of money by all means but im sure there are plenty of guys with deep pockets in the area that could help save the race.

bdcheung

Why doesn't USAC pony up the money?

merlinextraligh

Brilliant decision by the City:



Organizers of the race, the TD Bank Philadelphia Cycling Championship, say they face a $500,000 budget gap, about half of which is the result of the Nutter administration's decision to charge for city costs.....

At the moment, organizers have raised about $1.2 million of the $1.7 million needed to have the race....


The race draws hundreds of thousands of fans each year....

As a cycling competition, it is the premier single-day professional bike race in the United States. Among its past winners are seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and former Olympic speed-skating gold medalist Eric Heiden....

As a public festival, it has few peers on Philadelphia's calendar, creating a daylong block party running from Center City to Manayunk and Roxborough....

According to race organizers, it is an event that more than pays for itself, bringing between $15 million to $20 million in revenue to the city, between fans and competitors....
.

As it looks for ways to balance its budget, the city has asked more of such public events...

For the last several years, the city had not asked race organizers to cover any of the city's attendant costs, according to Dave Chauner, a co-founder of the race and president of Pro Cycling Tour, which runs the event....

This year, in light of the city's financial crisis, the Nutter administration notified the race organizers they would be expected to cover costs including clean-up and police. Chauner said the figure has settled at about $250,000.


Throw away $15-20 million in revenue to save $250,000. If anything the City should be kicking in the other $250,000 to save the race if necessary, and it's $15-20 million.

merlinextraligh

that ship saled south to Greenville.

datlas 

I hope they find another sponsor.

How about the "BikeForums Pro Cycling Championship?"

gsteinb

Well, for starters I'm pretty sure someone else must have won it in between Eric Heiden and Lance Armstrong.

merlinextraligh

Apparently none of note

umd

It's not a professional race forum, it's for all racing.

gsteinb

I'm thinking he meant the professional cycling forum.

bdcheung

I think he means this: https://www.bikeforums.net/professional-cycling-fans/

umd

Heh, didn't even know that was there

gsteinb

I just went below the fold myself. There's a lot going on in that foo place.

Glidedon

Thank the Federal government intrusion into banking for this.

gsteinb

ok.

Bnjmn

I don't think the city government is making $15-20mil, just city merchants. Sure the city makes $ on taxes, but if they are facing a budget/cash crunch, then it makes it hard to spend $ to make $.

merlinextraligh

True. However, Philadelphia has a sales tax, they also have motel taxes, city wage tax (IIRC) etc. They need to generate slightly better than 1/10th of 1% of that $20million in taxes to break even.

Elimating reasons for people to visit the City and spend money is not going to solve their budget problems.

Little Darwin

As someone who only goes into Philadelphia a couple of times a year, I would guess that most of the "tourist money" generated by the race is generated for the surrounding communities, and not Philadelphia itself.

merlinextraligh

then get the surrounding counties to pony up as well.

gsteinb

I'm shocked any of these races happen.

asv

Not really, people stay in philadelphia hotels and dine in Philadelphia. I'm hoping some deep pocketed corporate sponsors step up. (cough comcast)

SPlKE 

$500,000 is less than the average amount of one senior city councilman's DROP scam payment.

Sickening. Disgusting quasi-legal politicians' greed continues unabated in philly. Pro cycling gets cancelled.

Some things will never change in philly, even under Mike Nutter, far and away the best mayor I recall since moving here in 1979.

roadwarrior

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