Two years after it first hoped to launch, the World Cycling League has again delayed the start of its first racing season and is now focusing on a real estate development.
The startup is building a $20 million velodrome on the campus of Albright College in Reading, Pa., a move that will give it more control over its home facility and access to additional revenue streams. The project is scheduled to open by fall 2018, when a season would commence under the new plan.
The league’s founders had first targeted a 2015 launch, but that fell through when an independent developer’s plans for a Pittsburgh velodrome collapsed.
Then, in March 2016, the WCL executed a one-off pilot at AEG’s Velo Sports Center in Carson, Calif., and had talked about returning there for its first season shortly after the Rio Olympics. The pilot drew a good crowd and AEG was eager to help develop the concept, but the experience made the WCL backers think they needed their own track, said CEO and co-founder Dave Chauner.
“We really decided that we need to create our own facility on the East Coast,” Chauner said. “There needs to be an indoor velodrome on the East Coast, one in our backyard, and it’s one we needed to develop on our own.”
AEG remains open to working with the WCL in the future, spokesman Michael Roth said.
In Reading, Albright College and the region’s business leaders eagerly developed a partnership that calls for the WCL to operate the venue under a friendly long-term lease from the college, control programming and host graduation ceremonies and local cycling events via rentals. The WCL also considered sites in Coatesville, Pa., and Wilmington, Del.
Backed by Chauner, O’Melveny & Myers partner Chuck Baker, private equity banker Rick Mayer and New York entrepreneur John Nelson, the WCL still believes that velodrome racing can emerge in the U.S. after decades in the shadow of road cycling.
They’ve created a new competition format, dubbed TeamTrak, which is a more fan-friendly version of the esoteric Olympic events, and want to field co-ed teams from the U.S., Mexico and Europe to compete. But like in the Olympics, the venue needs of the sport have proved to be a tall challenge. There are 26 velodromes in the U.S., and Carson is the only indoor one.
