By Neal Rogers
Photo: Neal Rogers
Friday, September 10, was a day of both good and bad news for the T-Mobile International, now in its fourth year. While Lance Armstrong’s withdrawal due to tendonitis certainly diminished the number of spectators and media attention the race had expected, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s surprising enthusiasm for the event — a lingering question mark following the departure of former Mayor Willie Brown, a major advocate for the costly race — was underlined by Newsom’s announcement that the race would return in 2005 and beyond.
As late as August of 2003, the future of that year’s event was in question due to nearly $750,000 owed to the city by San Francisco Cycling LLC, a Delaware-based joint corporation backed by wealthy San Francisco investor Thomas Weisel’s Tailwind Sports, which owns and manages the U.S. Postal Team, and Pennsylvania’s Threshold Sports, the organization responsible for the USPRO and Pro Cycling Tour.
It had been reported that Mayor Willie Brown’s Office of Business and Economic Development had loaned San Francisco Cycling $350,000 just days before the 2002 event, a sum that equaled the organization’s debt to the city carried over from police costs from the 2001 event. Under city legislation, had the debt not been paid off, the organization would have been unable to acquire a permit for the 2002 event.
Three months after the 2002 loan was granted, it was forgiven, based on a one-page economic analysis written by a 20-year-old intern estimating that the event drew nearly 200,000 out-of-town visitors who spent more than $100 apiece, justifying the city’s expense. San Francisco Cycling still owes the city $487,000 from the 2002 event.
The revelation of the forgiven loan drew the ire of the very legislators who wrote the legislation prohibiting organizations that owe the city money from obtaining event permits.
“It’s a blatant gift of the taxpayers’ money,” Supervisor Aaron Peskin told the San Francisco Chronicle last year. “There is no provision in the law that allows the city to reduce or waive the fees for an athletic event.”
But, clearly, Brown’s office prevailed, challenging the Board of Supervisors to take responsibility for putting an end to a revenue-generating event. But that only got the event through 2003, and since Newsom was sworn into office in January, there have been questions as to whether the race would continue this year.
Newsom’s been a busy man since January. In just his first year in office, he made national headlines after insisting that the city issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples in defiance of state law. In August, California’s Supreme Court ruled that the more than 4000 same-sex marriage licenses issued in San Francisco were “void and of no legal effect.”
Clearly, Newsom has had bigger issues than a one-day bike race on his plate, and the continuation of the event this year and in years to come shows that this mayor, like his predecessor, believes in the event’s ability to draw crowds, create revenue and enhance San Francisco’s image as a world-class city.
I had a chance to chat with the mayor at the start of the men’s race on Sunday, and here’s what I was able to get from him. Nothing groundbreaking, but it sounds as though the event will be returning for years to come.
VeloNews: Can you comment about the future of this event?
Mayor Gavin Newsom: I am very enthusiastic about the prospect of this race, for this year and years to come. We just committed with the sponsors and the organizers to a number of years for this race in order to build it to what I hope is real national prominence, and for that matter international prominence. San Francisco is committed to it, and the organizers are committed to it.
Every year we’ve been fighting to make sure this race comes back, but now we’re confident that this race will be here for many, many years to come. We projected 600,000 spectators last year, and we’re hoping to break the 1 million mark this year. And if we don’t do it this year I can assure you we’ll do it next year or the year after that, because every year this thing is going to build in momentum.
VN: It’s known that former Mayor Willie Brown had been behind the event, but there had also been issues with money owed from years past. Has that situation been worked out?
GN: Yeah, we worked out an agreement, and we got legislation passed through our County Board of Supervisors that would allow me as Mayor to negotiate the terms of the agreement. If people don’t like it, they’ll be able to point their fingers at me because it was too good of a deal. On the other side, if they don’t like it, they’ll say it wasn’t a good enough deal, and they’ll criticize me, so it gives me the ability to personally negotiate it. And we did that, and we got three years’ minimum commitment.
VN: Do you ride a bike at all?
GN: I do [laughing], but I barely get to walk around now. I’m always being driven around, 15 minutes late, everywhere I go. That’s the burden of being a mayor, but this is a great bicycling city. We’re trying to make bicycling more accessible as a part of our day-to-day lives as San Franciscans as well, with our bike plan and our bike network and re-striping the streets. The backdrop of this event is so spectacular, and I think it’s a great asset for a bike race in general.