UKC

Oh dear. London doesn't want the Grand Depart. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-34389832

Any chance it could come back to Yorkshire instead?

In reply to Andy Say:

How much does it cost to host?

In reply to Mike Highbury:


not that much in Yorkshire, in terms of policing, road closures and modification to local transport. Try that in the city of London, massive impact, but I still think it's London's loss.

Shame that other parts of the UK didn't bid for it. Cornwall and Devon could give a couple of great routes. Give London a miss altogether then.

In reply to Andy Say:

Why did London bid for it ?

Did it's bid lessen the chances of Manchester and Glasgow, who also submitted bids ?
And will the chances of those cities getting it in the future be damaged by this ?

The TDF generated lots of income for Yorkshire, but of course London doesn't need such a boot because the whole of the UK economy is already geared around London. Typical arrogance to f**k it up for the rest of country.

In some respects it makes more sense for it go to Germany this time, once every 5 years is enough for it to come to the UK and remain special. But I fear it won't be back so soon.

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Somewhat oddly from another BBC article - "London beat bids from Edinburgh, Manchester and several German regions to stage the Grand Depart. " Surely if you bid then you accept at the start of the process that there will be a cost and hopefully someone in your bidding team will have worked out roughly what that cost will be?

ASO are/were keen for Le Tour to come back to Britain following the success of last year's GD but this behaviour may have scuppered that. I would have thought that a Scottish or Welsh bid would have been worth supporting - didn't London (or the Government) throw its hat in with the Edinburgh bid for last year's GD?

In reply to Bob:

Sounds like the bidding process is a lot more informal than say the olympics, but I believe Gary Verity put a lot of effort into securing the Yorkshire GD (whereas British cycling were backing Edinburgh). It sounds like London submitted it's bid without doing it's sums (agree that £35m could be better spent on infrastructure, not that it will be) or without getting the backing.

I would assume a Manc/Edinburgh bid would have been cheaper and had a much greater impact. It does seem a lot of goodwill has been squandered. I wonder who BC backed ?

In reply to Andy Say:

Does seem a bit odd to back out at the last minute.
Be a shame if it did undermine bids from elsewhere in the UK.

In reply to summo:



But they did, Manchester and Edinburgh bidded, but London's bid was better so that got taken forward is my understanding... as a result of London pulling out, it doesn't seem to mean that the next best UK offer is considered - therefore London have screwed it for everyone

In reply to Bob:
Surely if you bid then you accept at the start of the process that there will be a cost and hopefully someone in your bidding team will have worked out roughly what that cost will be?

Lots of unknowns..... Yorkshire bid £3.5 million for there 2014 TDF but actual costs to deliver the event was around £11 million. London's bid for this TDF was I believe £35 million and when it came down to it the full costs weren't thought value for money especially with the impending transport cuts.

In reply to Chris the Tall:


WTF!

Yorkshire already runs a near 20% Tax deficit (they spend nearly 20% more than they receive in Tax) and now your saying other parts of the country should throw even MORE money at them?

If you want it then earn the money and pay for it rather than belly ache that other parts of the country should subsidise you.

In reply to Indy:



Where did I say that ?

I said the having the TDF in Yorkshire made good economic sense, but wouldn't for London because it doesn't need that extra boost (everyone knows where London is anyway, it doesn't need more visitors, it's just had a very successful olympics etc etc. Apparently the Yorkshire terrier is one of the most popular dogs in France but most of them didn't where Yorkshire was !)

In reply to Indy:
Are all people in London dicks or just a few of you? You'd expect wealth redistribution away from the region with the highest wages in any tax system.
Anyway, the point was surely that getting the tdf potentially gives a good roi in some parts of the country but not London, and London may now have screwed over the bids of other regions when they didn't even want it I'm the end.

In reply to summo:


The Tour has has already been to Devon. It was a complete mess:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-28090246

South Wales - Wye Valley - Bristol could make a fantastic stage, I thought while out on my bike at the weekend.

In reply to Indy:

'Yorkshire already runs a near 20% Tax deficit (they spend nearly 20% more than they receive in Tax) and now your saying other parts of the country should throw even MORE money at them?
If you want it then earn the money and pay for it rather than belly ache that other parts of the country should subsidise you.'

And here's me thinking we were all part of one country. Yorkshire doesn't 'receive tax'; it goes to London.

In reply to Indy:

Londoners giving Yorkshire a few quid for the tour seems a fair swap for all the Yorkshire athletes winning the lions share of medals when you had the Olympics down there.

In reply to summo:

Its not as if London didn't know how much it would cost; they've had the Grand Depart in 2007 0r 2008, so surely could dust off and update the costing spreadsheet.

It does somewhat defy belief that they waited until the day bwefore the signing ceremony to pull out.If they had doubts, could they not have notified ASO months ago, and suggested (for eg) Edinburgh, who I suspect would have been willing and able to take it on.

Bidding, winning the bid, and then waiting this long is, quite simply, crap.

In reply to Andy Say:
No, as a Yorkshire council tax payer i would rather someone else took on the "privilege". I can do without my share of a £1 million pound loss, in spite of having enjoyed the spectacle.
I realise, of course, that the idea of it only incurring such a loss will be risible to some people, but to me a loss is a loss.
Actually, I remember saying the same thing a few years ago, about the World Student Games.
And more recently, about the Olympics.

In reply to Tom Valentine:


I think the loss is the organisers, that doesn't mean that Yorkshire lost as the whole. Most of North Yorkshire hotels were at max occupancy and how much would you pay for a 4 hr long TV advert on 'visit yorkshire' on prime TV, globally? Some things are almost worth more than money can buy.

I bet the London Olympics spent more on fireworks than Yorkshire spent on it's whole campaign. I think Yorkshire got a fair return and still does.

In reply to Ian W:


I would agree, amateurish, unprofessional and so forth.

In reply to summo:

All this pre supposes that 'London' is a single interest entity putting in then retracting the bid. In reality there will be a plethora of pressure groups advocating economic benefits or negatives.

In reply to GrahamD:


No it doesn't it pre supposes that the London Major is a single entity, and I do believe there is only one Boris.

In reply to Andy Say:

They should have had the bid led by RyanAir. We could then look forward to the grand depart from 'London Ringway*'













*Just realised some of our younger readers may not recognise the old name for Manchester airport

In reply to Andy Hardy:


Cant see the teams being keen on that. When they find that each sprocket is an additional fee.

In reply to Mike Stretford:

Well BoJo obviously put his hand up to the retraction (no doubt under pressure from lobby groups) but I wasn't clear whether it was him who initially fronted the bid ?