Grand Depart 2017

[Mr Larrington]

BBC London News has just said that TfL has turned down the opportunity to host the start of Le Tour in 2017.  ASO not happy...

[henshaw11]

Aye, bunch of timewasting tyre-kickers :/

The argument is that's it's £6M (?) that comes out of the cycling budget, and that hosting the depart doesn't actually do much for commuting in London - which is fine as a justification, but they must have realised that well in advance. It'll certainly screw up the chances of London ever getting any events from ASO in future I expect, unless the identity of the timewaster-in-chief becomes known..

I'd be curious as to how the (final) London stage of the ToB compares, cost-wise (I missed this year but went along for the previous two).

[LEE]

Aye, bunch of timewasting tyre-kickers :/

The argument is that's it's £6M (?) that comes out of the cycling budget, and that hosting the depart doesn't actually do much for commuting in London - which is fine as a justification, but they must have realised that well in advance. It'll certainly screw up the chances of London ever getting any events from ASO in future I expect, unless the identity of the timewaster-in-chief becomes known..

I'd be curious as to how the (final) London stage of the ToB compares, cost-wise (I missed this year but went along for the previous two).

An estimated boost to the economy of £100M last year.

I suppose the argument is that London will be full of tourists anyway.

Extremely short-sighted, short-termist, bottom-lineist behaviour.

[Peter]

I should think the other cities that failed in their bids will be a trifle peeved.

[Moleman76]

yeahbut they can get the Grand Depart  for LEL 2017

[sojournermike]

Should just return it to its rightful home in Yorkshire. Solve the problem once and for all.

[canny colin]

  How man it,s  got to gan ta Prudhoe we have still got all the flags & bunting oot .

[henshaw11]

Aye, bunch of timewasting tyre-kickers :/

The argument is that's it's £6M (?) that comes out of the cycling budget, and that hosting the depart doesn't actually do much for commuting in London - which is fine as a justification, but they must have realised that well in advance. It'll certainly screw up the chances of London ever getting any events from ASO in future I expect, unless the identity of the timewaster-in-chief becomes known..

I'd be curious as to how the (final) London stage of the ToB compares, cost-wise (I missed this year but went along for the previous two).

An estimated boost to the economy of £100M last year.

I suppose the argument is that London will be full of tourists anyway.

Extremely short-sighted, short-termist, bottom-lineist behaviour.

Well, there's expected outlay,  income to the economy,  but also how much of any income makes it back to tfl coffers as profit - which may be the sticking point. But all of which there'll be some sort of estimate for of course and known in advance.  Twats...

[LEE]

If the maths is correct and, for an outlay of a few million, you can get £100 million in return then a sensible Government would say "Here's a few extra million quid..get on with it".

[hatler]

What happens when accountants take over.

[Andrew]

ASO not happy...

I can imagine not. I wonder if they'll be sending someone a bill or even filing legal action.

You just don't win a bid then turn around and say 'nah, changed my mind'.... hmmm, thinks: was the grand depart on EBay?

[henshaw11]

If the maths is correct and, for an outlay of a few million, you can get £100 million in return then a sensible Government would say "Here's a few extra million quid..get on with it".

Again, *if* the maths are correct - we don't know the details, hopefully something will pop out via the London Assembly and/or FOI requests.

Aside from the current austerity/shrinking the state manta,  the government "stepping in" is overly optimistic - where do you stop /start ? In any case, there was a not unrelated issue regarding 2014/Yorkshire funding, responsibility being that of Uk Sport :
http://m.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/rural/farming/government-rules-out-funding-yorkshire-s-2014-tour-de-france-1-5236694
(That said,  money got bunged at Kids Company,  but that's another story...)

If -as it appears - that the funding was coming from tfls cycling budget mebbe the question ought to be why from there and not some other more general/tourism related pot ?

[hillbilly]

Good.  There's too many of those bloody cyclists on the streets of London anyway.  Streets are for cars, not people.  Or something. Erm.

[geoff]

Aye, bunch of timewasting tyre-kickers :/

The argument is that's it's £6M (?) that comes out of the cycling budget, and that hosting the depart doesn't actually do much for commuting in London - which is fine as a justification, but they must have realised that well in advance. It'll certainly screw up the chances of London ever getting any events from ASO in future I expect, unless the identity of the timewaster-in-chief becomes known..

I'd be curious as to how the (final) London stage of the ToB compares, cost-wise (I missed this year but went along for the previous two).

Twas BoJo. He has "put his hands up" (oooerr missus):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-34389832

[TigaSefi]

Sadiq Khan straight in there with "wasted opportunity". If we held it, he'll be straight in there "wasted money that could have been spent on improving cycling safety". 

However, we should have pulled out long before it got to this stage.

[mrcharly-YHT]

They've said it would cost £35m.

Is that the fee to TDF + infrastructure + running costs, or just the fee to TDF?

[trekker12]

I would guess that's a total fee (plus a bit to round the numbers up).

Fine, I agree with the sentiment that spending the money on that could be better spent on real cyclists (or words to that effect) but why bid for it - or tell Prudhomme we would be interested in the first place then with a month before the full route is due to be announced decide we can't afford it anyway. After all it would always be 'some' millions it's not like it would be thrown together with sticky tape and string.

I wasn't particularly interested in having it in London. London doesn't need the Tour de France IMO. I loved the Yorkshire stages and I cycled out to Essex to watch them through but we've had it recently and it's someone else's turn - it is a French race after all. This makes us as a nation look stupid after the success of Yorkshire I think it's a shame and we won't be getting any further offers to do it again in the near future.

[henshaw11]

They've said it would cost £35m.

Is that the fee to TDF + infrastructure + running costs, or just the fee to TDF?

Total I expect.
Utrecht paid ASO 4M eu. to host the depart in 2014.

Boris..fecking idiot, this late is inexcusable. As has been mentioned elsewhere,  a shitload of cash (ongoing) for a garden bridge that's not open 24hrs, on the other hand... (tho that now looks doubtful)

[LEE]

However, we should have pulled out long before it got to this stage.

Something every parent says at some point

[Canardly]

I imagine hell will be a frosty place before we are offered it again.

[Tigerrr]

Boris has been quite open about it - says once the total costs became evident what bid levels were actually going to be it was a no brainer that £35m could be better spent. I think that makes a deal of sense. Bunging money at the gangsters running the doping institution of the TDF is hardly well spent.
Possibly based on learning on the lack of long term benefits or 'legacy' from the olympics? i understand that levels of  sports participation have declined in London since the olympics (excepting cycling but that wasn't olympic driven).
The TDF, Football world cup, Olympics - scams.

[mzjo]

BJ's withdrawal would be quite in line with a Eurosceptic, renegotiate or withdraw policy favoured by "your?" current political leaders.

I have never really understood the economics of TdF hosting, the maths doesn't add up for me, but the fact that London won the bid so soon after Yorkshire suggests to me that there might have been a shortage of really enthusiastic potential hosts with real money up front. There is a lot of hype from ASO and Le Tour; a cold wind of realism might not do any harm at all.