Hoping to boost local businesses and taxes, the City has secured the race’s start next year. Instead of benefitting from one day’s festivities, hosting the start of the event means that race teams, support crews, and athletes will spend as much as a week or more in the city.
Benefits should be felt by not only the town’s hotels but its restaurants and other industries as well.
With nearly half of the $580,000 cost already pledge, the city is hoping to raise the rest of the money from corporate sponsorships, thereby negating any impact to local government coffers.
From the Press Democrat.com:
Santa Rosa formally agreed this week to host the start of the 2012 Tour of California, a proposition that will be three times more costly for the community but promises a bigger economic boost.
After hosting a stage of the tour for five years from 2006 to 2010, the tour is skipping Santa Rosa entirely in 2011. But the nation’s premiere cycling event will come back in a big way in 2012, agreeing to let the race begin in Santa Rosa.
“This is a whole new race for us and brings with it a whole new set of responsibilities,” said Raissa de la Rosa, a program specialist with the city’s economic development department.
Read the full article here.