With the family which owns the USA Pro Cycling Challenge relinquishing control of the event, race CEO & Exec Dir Shawn Hunter said that organizers now "are
pursuing a new ownership model: a large collection of community-based
and national investors ... that will give the
race the long-term viability that draws even more investors," according
to Jason Blevins of the DENVER POST. Hunter: "There are a lot of people here in Colorado who will be a part of this group and some people on the national level who have watched what we have built and want to be a part of it. The goal is not just raising money. We want strategic investors who understand this opportunity and are willing to grow it." Denver-based businessman Ken Gart, who is leading Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper's $100M "Pedal Colorado" plan, "is joining Hunter in the search for investors." Father and son Richard and Rick Schaden, "former owners of the lawsuit-plagued" Quiznos QSR chain, spent about $20M of their own money to "float the race through its first five years, whittling its annual losses" to $2M this year from $10M in '11. The Pro Challenge "has become the largest spectator event in Colorado." Hunter and his team "will be scrambling for the next two months." This "is already their busy time as they line-up sponsors, invite teams from across the world, enlist host cities and lay out a new route" (DENVER POST, 10/1).
GETTING WITH THE PROGRAM: In Denver, Monica Mendoza cited tourism officials as having said that the Pro Challenge "serves as a seven-day commercial for Colorado as the race winds through the most scenic parts of the state." But the race "has been unable to attract one or more title sponsors to provide the backing necessary to make the event profitable -- and some have pointed to the Schaden's involvement as a factor." Hunter said that he "already is in talks with potential sponsors and feels confident that the race will find either individual investors, an investment fund or marketing agencies that will want to take over the sponsorship of the event, which is not cheap." Hunter "would not disclose the cost to put on the seven-day, statewide event." But he said, "It's a pretty significant investment." Gart believes that the race "will live on and is confident that the event will find a sponsor." He said that it also may "be a group of investors and sponsors" (DENVER POST, 10/1).
