Whether you agree with the report or not is irrelevant. You displayed considerable ignorance as to how bike races are organised, that report helps resolve that by demonstrating the promises made to host communities who help finance races. From the Tour de France, the World Championships, races like the Tour de Yorkshire or the Tour of California, all the way down to the Tour of Crapsville, the same promises get made: spend money on this race and it'll generate an economic return. Race to race the scale changes, but the promises remain the same.
Whether the promises are really delivered on, that's a different story. There are many economic impact assessment reports publicly available from other races and, whether you agree with their methodologies or not, the fact is these are the arguments being made as to why money was spent on a bike race. Whether it's a group of local hoteliers getting together to promote a ski resort out of season by bringing a race through, or whether it's a major metropolis pumping money into a race in order to generate TV time for the area that will in turn bring in tourists or conference visitors, this
is the economics of organising bike races.Why guess the impact of Richmond? The report is
out there. Does the fact that McQuaid &co paid someone to claim this was the economic impact of the event mean there should be backing for a future one day race? Not necessarily. For one, the Worlds was a 10-day event, so the impact is quite different to what you'd get from a one day race. For two, who's actually tried to promote a one day race in Richmond using that argument?
Most importantly, you also have to understand the way in which races are used by host communities. On its own, bringing a bike race to town will have very little impact, the same as on its own sponsoring a cycling team has very little impact without the activation spend. Places like Yorkshire, bodies like the Government of South Australia and the State Government of Victoria, they incorporate their spend on bike races into other activities aimed at generating tourism and conference visitors. If you really want to reap reward from bringing a bike race to town it's not a case of one bike race, it's a case of a programme of initiatives.