Philadelphia Cycling Championship Secures Two New Sponsors
TD Bank Philadelphia Cycling Championship organizers yesterday announced that they have "secured two new sponsors needed to assure the event's 25th running" on June 7, according to Christopher Hepp of the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. Organizers "declined to identify the sponsors," but they said that the sponsors "would cover about half of the $500,000 budget gap that had put the professional cycling race in jeopardy." Even with recently increased ticket sales, race co-Founder Dave Chauner said that his group "still needed to find $100,000 to $150,000 in funding." The race has been "threatened this year by the global financial crisis," as organizers "lost a number of sponsors, including two that had provided $225,000." Then the city, "facing its own financial troubles, announced it could no longer subsidize the race by waiving the cost of police and sanitation services." That amounts to "nearly $250,000 in additional expenses." Race organizers "found that even after slashing expenses, they were $500,000 shy of the $1.7[M] needed to run the race." Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell last week "stepped forward and authorized the state to buy $50,000 worth of VIP tickets for state workers." In all, "about $80,000 has been raised in the last week in VIP ticket sales" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 4/30).
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