USA Pro Challenge host cities are embracing party-time exposure over coffer-swelling revenue for the upcoming week-long bike race across Colorado.
The 11 communities anchoring a stage in the fourth iteration of the popular race have learned it’s not so much about reaping cash as it is a chance to throw a bike-riding party that millions will see on television.
While that cycling-friendly marketing exposure is a nebulous reward for communities that are paying anywhere from $65,000 to nearly $1 million to host a stage start or finish, hosts overwhelmingly say the benefits far outweigh the costs.
“Talk about international advertising. We couldn’t pay for this type of exposure,” said Doug Martin, the technical director of the race’s local organizing committee in Colorado Springs, which budgeted $700,000 to host the fourth stage circuit race through the city.
Splashing colorful video of crowded downtowns and inspiring mountain vistas into homes in 161 countries, with 30 hours of mostly live coverage across three NBC networks, is the reward for closing roads and providing rooms and food for several hundred racers, crew and organizers, hosts say.
“It’s a real marketing play. We value the television as much as we value the people on the street,” said Visit Denver CEO Richard Scharf. The tourism group recently unveiled its first Summer Restaurant Week, which coincides with the race’s climactic Aug. 24 finish in downtown.
The weekend before Labor Day was always a downtime in Denver, and now it’s becoming one of the hottest weekends of the year, Scharf said.
“But the big payoff for us is the national and international TV,” he said.
That lesson took time to learn.
It was hard for host cities during the inaugural 2011 Pro Challenge. Without ticket sales, it was difficult to estimate crowds. Race chasers didn’t necessarily stay overnight at a finish or linger after a start, troubling hosts that spent big bracing for visitor traffic.
Organizers have tweaked the race route over the previous three years. Last year’s race saw the first four hosts — Aspen, Breckenridge, Steamboat Springs and Vail — get both a stage finish and start. Visitors idled at host cities, deepening the economic harvest from the race.
This year, organizers continued that trend with two starts in Aspen and day of racing in Vail as well as a finish and start in Crested Butte’s Gunnison River Valley.
Organizers also expanded the race’s presence on the Front Range this year, where crowds grow dense. Colorado Springs gets two nights — teams and crews will stay over after both Stage 3 and Stage 4. The final stage starts in Boulder, winds through Golden and finishes in Denver, passing a short distance from a few hundred thousand metro-area homes during what likely will be the most-watched day in the race’s history.
These aren’t huge tweaks, but adjustments learned from previous routes, said race chief Shawn Hunter, who likes to say his team is “always learning.”
Hosts are adjusting the new approach, treating the race as an end-of-summer celebration with week-long parties. Those ancillary celebrations — a 50-mile group ride in Aspen, a 5K run along Denver’s route and a kid’s bike race in Boulder, a race up Pikes Peak capping days of group rides around Colorado Springs, a cruiser race through Crested Butte, a Big Head Todd concert wrapping a week-long bike party in Breckenridge — help engage locals and entice visitors to build a vacation around the race.
“We consider this one of the most important events we do every year. It really helps identify us as a community that is both a mountain and road bike destination,” said Jennifer McAtamney, who is helping organize the race in Breckenridge, which has budgeted about $200,000 for its fourth hosting.
Race organizers next year will create their own Pro Challenge-branded events in every host city — like the Aspen Gran Fondo in June and the trio of Pro Challenge Experience rides spinning out of 2013 host Fort Collins on Sunday.
“We are trying to create these legacy events,” Hunter said. “They will eventually be nice fundraisers for the communities.”
Host veterans this year say local buy-in is the highest ever. Crested Butte has embraced a crowd-funding approach to raise support for its third year as host, which is costing the towns of Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte about $125,000.
“We think it allows individuals to have a direct impact on the event,” said Aaron “Huck” Huckstep, the bike-loving mayor of Crested Butte.
Hosts are harvesting financial and in-kind support from cities, local businesses and local marketing budgets. The average ratio seems to be about 75 percent municipal cash and 25 percent sponsorship. Hosts are selling beer, merchandise and throwing fundraising galas to offset costs.
Race rookie Woodland Park, which is spending $65,000 to host the start of Stage 5, a tenfold increase in the town’s annual events budget, hopes to recoup 85 percent of that through sponsors and fundraising, local organizer Mike Perini said.
“When you calculate the global marketing that is occurring as a result of the race, likely into the millions … we are optimistic that the benefits, when all said and done, will be substantial,” Perini said.
Most hosts realize the Pro Challenge is not a money maker. You have to approach it with a different mindset than other events, said Jens Husted, the organizer for Boulder, which returns for its second year as Pro Challenge host.
Smaller mountain towns can benefit from the cycling circus that follows the race, but Front Range towns can’t be in it for the immediate boost, Husted said.
When Boulder hosted the race in 2012 — spending more than $280,000 — there was an expectation it would bring a lot of sales tax revenue. But a University of Colorado analysis of Boulder’s 2012 hosting showed the town reaping less than $50,000 in sales tax revenue off $1.2 million in visitor spending — much less than the $8 million in spending projected by race organizers.
“We’ve realized this isn’t something that fills the town up,” Husted said, noting that enlisting local sponsors has been a challenge this year, especially after the September flooding pinched nearly every business and resident in the region.
“Anytime you are raising money for something that doesn’t really show an evident return on investment for companies, it’s pretty tough,” he said.
So this year, Boulder is going smaller, with a focus on family. “We are throwing a party for the people of Boulder,” Husted said.
Parties are not worth the expense for Bob Nicolls, the owner of Monarch Mountain ski area, which is hosting the finish of Stage 3, a mountaintop climax meant to mirror the demanding climbs of the Tour de France.
Nicolls is not enthralled with promoting a bike race at a ski area that isn’t open in the summer. He thinks Salida and Chaffee County’s $120,000 budget for the race could be better spent, calling the Pro Challenge a “flash in the pan.”
“Monarch does not have any summer business, so it’d all be about the ski area on TV, making an impression with a skier to come, and that skier following up on it six-months later. That’s not something easy to measure,” Nicolls said. “I’ll pass on the Pro Challenge Kool-Aid, but good luck to all involved and the participants.”
Even the most ardent race supporters acknowledge the race can be a hard sell to sponsors eager to see results supporting their investment.
Measuring a return on investment from public relations efforts always has been a challenge, even for huge events like the Olympics or the World Cup, said Darrin Duber-Smith, a marketing professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
“They say: ‘You just can’t buy this sort of publicity.’ Oh but you can,” Duber-Smith said. “Many cities are withdrawing bids for these events because it is commonly accepted that the ROI might not actually be there.”
The Pro Challenge’s commissioned research shows that race drawing more than 1 million spectators and stirring an economic impact around $100 million.
The privately funded race has been searching for a title sponsor that could support the $10 million to $11 million cost of staging the seven-day traverse across Colorado. The losses to race owners Richard and Rick Schaden have been shrinking — to $3 million las year from $9 million in 2011 — and the race is tracking toward a profit in 2015, Rick Schaden said, calling his investment long-term.
Organizers in mountain communities say the evidence of the race’s benefit is found in increasing sales tax revenues over the last two summers.
In recent years, summer in Colorado has revealed itself as the fastest growing tourism market. High country destinations are reporting summer business is growing faster than winter. While summer revenue is paltry compared to winter in Colorado’s famously skiable hills, the room to grow is huge.
Bike racing — with its wealthy fans and participants — is the perfect vehicle for promoting summer in the state, race hosts say.
“We are so fortunate to have an opportunity like this to showcase our whole valley,” said Nancy Lesley, whose local organizing team in Aspen has budgeted more than $350,000 to host Aspen’s fourth Pro Challenge. “People are excited for the race and all the events we have leading up to it. There’s a buzz around town.
“This is a chance for us to enjoy a unique event right in our backyards,” she said. “And we get to show the world our backyard and establish the valley as a cycling destination.”
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374, jblevins@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jasonblevins
The 524-mile, seven-stage USA Pro Challenge runs Aug. 18-24. Visit USAprocyclingchallenge.com/route for route details.
Stage 1: Aug. 18, Aspen Circuit Race, 61 miles in three 20-mile laps between Aspen and Snowmass Village.
Stage 2: Aug. 19, Aspen to Mt. Crested Butte, 105 miles through Basalt, Carbondale, Redstone and over McClure and Kebler passes.
Stage 3: Aug. 20, Gunnison to Monarch Mountain, 96 miles over Monarch Pass into Salida and back up the pass to Monarch Mountain ski area.
Stage 4: Aug. 21, Colorado Springs Circuit Race, 70 miles in four laps on 16-mile loop through city and Garden of the Gods.
Stage 5: Aug. 22, Woodland Park to Breckenridge, 104 miles through Fairplay and climbing Hoosier Pass into Breckenridge.
Stage 6: Aug. 23, Vail Time Trial, 10 miles up Vail Pass.
Stage 7: Aug. 24, Boulder to Denver, 78 miles through Golden and up Lookout Mountain, finishing in Civic Center Park.
