In reply to 999thAndy:
Tour towns pay big money to have the stages start/end in their town as it brings in a lot of local cash. In fact in the old days it was not unknown to have two stages in a day so they could cram in 4 start/finish towns to pocket more cash.
ASO will take money from the highest bidder, so on that count Yorkshire, and our traditionally long pockets and short arms might be at a disadvantage.
As someone else said though, all the money in the world doesn't help if the logistics of housing and moving thousands of people every day don't stack up.
Where I'm from in the Holderness plain it's pan-flat so would be great for a sprint-finish prologue or long time trial. They could then get the overnight Hull-Zeebruge ferry and then loop anti clockwise round France proper down to the Pyrenees then over to the Alps to fight it out.
I was at the London prologue a few years ago and it was a great success from a spectator point of view - I think with the improved status of pro cycling in the UK this could only be a good thing.