2020 World Championship struggling to get state support

[MatParker117]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/2-7-million-euro-debt-forces-italian-federation-to-make-drastic-budget-cuts/

Only bidder is Vicenza in Italy but it's struggling to get state backing. In terms of alternatives, Australia has interest and I'm sure somewhere in the UK could pull something together.

 

[Red Rick]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/2-7-million-euro-debt-forces-italian-federation-to-make-drastic-budget-cuts/

Only bidder is Vicenza in Italy but it's struggling to get state backing. In terms of alternatives, Australia has interest and I'm sure somewhere in the UK could pull something together.

The UK has it in 2019 already. Australia totally depends on where for me.

 

[MatParker117]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/2-7-million-euro-debt-forces-italian-federation-to-make-drastic-budget-cuts/

Only bidder is Vicenza in Italy but it's struggling to get state backing. In terms of alternatives, Australia has interest and I'm sure somewhere in the UK could pull something together.

The UK has it in 2019 already. Australia totally depends on where for me.

TDU area has been mentioned.

 

[el chava]

Hope Bogota will try again if Vicenza should fail.

 

[Pricey_sky]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/2-7-million-euro-debt-forces-italian-federation-to-make-drastic-budget-cuts/

Only bidder is Vicenza in Italy but it's struggling to get state backing. In terms of alternatives, Australia has interest and I'm sure somewhere in the UK could pull something together.

The UK has it in 2019 already. Australia totally depends on where for me.

TDU area has been mentioned.

I know it's a well used climb, but a few finishing laps of Willunga hill would be fine with me as a quick fix, it's a hard enough test to make a real difference.

 

[Nirvana]

It's not a bad news giving that the route would be pretty easy.

 

[Escarabajo]

Hope Bogota will try again if Vicenza should fail.

It might depend on how they fare next year with the "Colombia Oro y Paz" race.

Hope we apply for another world championship!

 

[hazaran]

Maybe we just skip it in 2020, it's mostly dull anyway. The UCI can surely stretch that Olympic money another year.

 

[oldcrank]

Kind of sad to see that the ill-advised pursuit of the
"low-hanging fruit" of tracks medals, "that nobody
except the Brits and the Aussies care about" has
financially crippled the national body of a once
proud and dominant traditional cycling nation.

 

[Brullnux]

Kind of sad to see that the ill-advised pursuit of the
"low-hanging fruit" of tracks medals, "that nobody
except the Brits and the Aussies care about" has
financially crippled the national body of a once
proud and dominant traditional cycling nation.

What are you talking about?

 

[May0maniac]

Kind of sad to see that the ill-advised pursuit of the
"low-hanging fruit" of tracks medals, "that nobody
except the Brits and the Aussies care about" has
financially crippled the national body of a once
proud and dominant traditional cycling nation.

What are you talking about?

Italy spending a lot of money on their track cycling program, I don't think that's the big problem.
The biggest problem overall is the fact that the WC has become waaay to expensive, it's as expensive Tour de France grand depart and that gives you way more coverage and eyeballs, you can have a few Giro starts for the same amount of money and the WC is mostly a race that only the hardcore fans and the riders care about, the kind of exposure that you get for that amount of money isn't that great.

 

[42x16ss]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/2-7-million-euro-debt-forces-italian-federation-to-make-drastic-budget-cuts/

Only bidder is Vicenza in Italy but it's struggling to get state backing. In terms of alternatives, Australia has interest and I'm sure somewhere in the UK could pull something together.

The UK has it in 2019 already. Australia totally depends on where for me.

TDU area has been mentioned.

I know it's a well used climb, but a few finishing laps of Willunga hill would be fine with me as a quick fix, it's a hard enough test to make a real difference.

Brisbane would be able to provide a route with a lot of short, sharp hills somewhere between Liege and Amstel in terms of profile. The weather shouldn’t be too hot by then either.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Kind of sad to see that the ill-advised pursuit of the
"low-hanging fruit" of tracks medals, "that nobody
except the Brits and the Aussies care about" has
financially crippled the national body of a once
proud and dominant traditional cycling nation.

What are you talking about?

Italy spending a lot of money on their track cycling program, I don't think that's the big problem.
The biggest problem overall is the fact that the WC has become waaay to expensive, it's as expensive Tour de France grand depart and that gives you way more coverage and eyeballs, you can have a few Giro starts for the same amount of money and the WC is mostly a race that only the hardcore fans and the riders care about, the kind of exposure that you get for that amount of money isn't that great.

Yep.

‘Can’t rule out a loss’
The event had a budget of NOK 156 million. BT estimated that total costs may hit around NOK 220 million. “The receipts haven’t been tallied yet, and we’ll have to see what’s come in, but I’m worried,” Hansen admitted to BT. “I can’t rule out there will be a loss. It’s demanding to host a world championships, but the public has been fantastic. I hope those who have any influence can see that this has been a fantastic promotion of Bergen, of Western Norway and the whole country, and that they won’t let the cycling federation bleed afterwards.”

...

Salte is worried the budget fiasco will hurt the cycling sport in Norway. “It’s a special situation, the federation will have to fire some of its people,” Salte said. “The payroll is the only area where they can save money.” He also claimed the federation should have been better prepared for currency exchange costs. When Bergen 2017 was granted the rights to host the world championships in 2017, a licensing fee of EUR 7 million from the international cycling federation (UCI) was attached. “They should have paid that earlier (when the Norwegian krone was stronger). Instead they put it off.” That means the EUR 7 million now costs nearly NOK 65 million instead of the NOK 50 million that was budgeted.

State officials, meanwhile, reminded reporters that the state already has contributed NOK 52 million in funding for the event, NOK 12 million more than initially requested. They weren’t at all sure there would be any willingness to bail out the organizers now.

It's btw quite clear, that we are on the same way like FIFA and IOC. Lappartient was elected by all african nations in UCI, so they will get a WRC in the not too distant future. South Africa, Egypt, Tunisia, Rwanda and Morocco are interested.

In the classic cycling countries there is no money for stuff like that anymore. Same with Summer/Winter games, where one candidate after the other gets rejected by the population.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

why not put Roubaix or some village around Arenberg forest up for organizing. Imagine that, a Worlds lap with 10 times the Arenberg forest sector

 

[jsem94]

Re:

why not put Roubaix or some village around Arenberg forest up for organizing. Imagine that, a Worlds lap with 10 times the Arenberg forest sector

I think we've all thought about this a few times. Never going to happen, but it would be so great.

 

[42x16ss]

Re:

why not put Roubaix or some village around Arenberg forest up for organizing. Imagine that, a Worlds lap with 10 times the Arenberg forest sector

I would fly from Australia to Northern France just to dump water on the cobbles the night before the race if that happened!

 

[jsem94]

Re:

why not put Roubaix or some village around Arenberg forest up for organizing. Imagine that, a Worlds lap with 10 times the Arenberg forest sector

If you go check the Race Design Thread I think I've partly fulfilled that fantasy now. Will never ever happen, but we can dream.

 

[DFA123]

Why did it cost Bergen over €25m to host? That seems like an insane amount of money to pay for some police overtime, get a couple of helicopters, some motos, and some TV cameras and close a few roads for a week. Difficult to see how they could recoup that in terms of exposure or increase in visitors during the WC.

IIRC Team Sky has a budget of about €35m per year. That seems a much better return on investment in terms of publicity, than holding a week of races in a niche sport - only one of which most people have any real interest in.

 

[Breh]

It didn't cost Bergen that much. The Norwegian cycling federation has to come up with the money. Bergen, the Norwegian state and sponsors obviously chipped in but they are not the ones organizing.

Norway is an expensive country. Crowds were pretty big throughout the week if I recall correctly.
Closing roads in the 2nd largest city of your country is obviously quite expensive. Police is not that cheap, especially not in Norway.

Theres not only these costs you seem to underestimate, there's also the cost of keeping an airplane in the air during your broadcasts, accomodating the riders, staff and press, constructing the temporary infrastructure, publicity,...


Oh yeah, they had to pay the UCI 7million euros for organizing. That probably didn't help either.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

It didn't cost Bergen that much. The Norwegian cycling federation has to come up with the money. Bergen, the Norwegian state and sponsors obviously chipped in but they are not the ones organizing.

Norway is an expensive country. Crowds were pretty big throughout the week if I recall correctly.
Closing roads in the 2nd largest city of your country is obviously quite expensive. Police is not that cheap, especially not in Norway.

Theres not only these costs you seem to underestimate, there's also the cost of keeping an airplane in the air during your broadcasts, accomodating the riders, staff and press, constructing the temporary infrastructure, publicity,...


Oh yeah, they had to pay the UCI 7million euros for organizing. That probably didn't help either.

I still don't see it costing anywhere near that much if its done efficiently. I imagine a lot of people ended up getting paid who didn't really need getting paid for the event to happen - just like with most of these things.

Which is probably why no-one has much interest in hosting it anymore. Its just terrible value for money.

 

[Breh]

Re: Re:

It didn't cost Bergen that much. The Norwegian cycling federation has to come up with the money. Bergen, the Norwegian state and sponsors obviously chipped in but they are not the ones organizing.

Norway is an expensive country. Crowds were pretty big throughout the week if I recall correctly.
Closing roads in the 2nd largest city of your country is obviously quite expensive. Police is not that cheap, especially not in Norway.

Theres not only these costs you seem to underestimate, there's also the cost of keeping an airplane in the air during your broadcasts, accomodating the riders, staff and press, constructing the temporary infrastructure, publicity,...


Oh yeah, they had to pay the UCI 7million euros for organizing. That probably didn't help either.

I still don't see it costing anywhere near that much if its done efficiently. I imagine a lot of people ended up getting paid who didn't really need getting paid for the event to happen - just like with most of these things.

Which is probably why no-one has much interest in hosting it anymore. Its just terrible value for money.

I really think you underestimate the costs of improving road infrastructure(such as removing speedbumps, improving sidewalks, resurfacing parts of the road,...) and the massively increased costs of safety after the terrorist incidents across Europe. The weaker Krone cost them some money, the oil and gas prices took a tumble aswell which resulted in less sponsorship from that industry.

2014 Ponferadda cost over 11million Euros. In a country that is way cheaper, without the NOK fluctuation, before the increased costs regarding safety and before Qatar 2016 decided to artificially raise the bar regarding the UCI fee. Did the NCF spend too much money? It's likely, but not by too much considering their situation.

I'm not convinced the ROI is that bad. Both Richmond and Bergen seem to be happy with it.


Hosting events like a WC football or the Olympics is a whole different thing though. It's very hard to see why cities/countries would like to organise these monster events.

 

[Alex Simmons/RST]

It also represents a massive financial risk to the UCI, since the road world champs is by far their single largest source of income.

 

[railxmig]

Re: Re:

why not put Roubaix or some village around Arenberg forest up for organizing. Imagine that, a Worlds lap with 10 times the Arenberg forest sector

If you go check the Race Design Thread I think I've partly fulfilled that fantasy now. Will never ever happen, but we can dream.

I guess if Tournai (Belgium) wouldn't be ready, then there's always Lille, which is an actual aglomeration.

I'm an easy guy, so if there are problems with costs, then i would more seriously check out any (if only there are such) bids from cheaper countries or just from smaller places, which are worth visiting. But the main problem then would be accommodation. Wonder, if major winter resorts are interested in WC as i guess the costs outside the winter season should be smaller. Imagine Morzine with Joux-Plagne, l'Alpe with Sarenne or Davos with Albula and Flüela . There's normally less speed bumps and road islands in the mountains, so they shouldn't be a big problem. Also, i guess the UCI HQ with Col de Croix could be possible. If it's about a flat WC course, then throw in a year with Sarzeau, Pau (connections with UCI and/or long history with cycling) or some racing circut. It would leave a not so great taste, but the logistics should be more bearable. I guess the cost of closing the road is dependant on its importance?

Wonder, if you can put miscrewtransactions and loot box casinos into cycling.

 

[Escarabajo]

I agree that the WC is a terrible value for the money. Well is the costs reported here are correct.

I am sure if done properly in a country like Colombia would not even come close to that amount. But that would be Colombia only. Any other place would be very expensive. So yes, a terrible investment if you ask me.

 

[Highlander]

Re:

Why did it cost Bergen over €25m to host? That seems like an insane amount of money to pay for some police overtime, get a couple of helicopters, some motos, and some TV cameras and close a few roads for a week. Difficult to see how they could recoup that in terms of exposure or increase in visitors during the WC.

IIRC Team Sky has a budget of about €35m per year. That seems a much better return on investment in terms of publicity, than holding a week of races in a niche sport - only one of which most people have any real interest in.

I went to both the Richmond and Bergen worlds. I was surprised at the major police presence in Bergen that I did not note at all in Richmond. They were everywhere, including on top of buildings, so I'm sure that also helped to factor in escalating the costs. Many more streets were closed down as well probably in response to recent terrorist attacks, so this also would contribute to higher costs.