Nixon backpedals on Tour of Missouri

The Tour of Missouri has been spared.

Gov. Jay Nixon announced Tuesday afternoon that the international professional bicycling event should go forward even though the state “faces tremendous financial challenges,” according to his statement. Last week, Nixon froze $1.5 million budgeted by the Division of Tourism to pay for part of the race. The race, which has a budget of $3.3 million, faced cancellation without the funds.

Sedalia, one of 11 host cities for the race from Sept. 7 to 13, will put on the individual time trial portion on Sept. 11. The Tour of Missouri, which features top-tier cycling teams, is televised worldwide.

Jack McIntosh, chairman of the local organizing committee, was pleased to hear on Tuesday that the race would go forward.

“There’s been so much planning and effort put into it. ... It would have been a shame to see it get canceled,” he said.

In his statement, Nixon said he requested that the Office of Administration look at spending records regarding the previous two races and this year’s event.

“The race will go on this year, and Missourians deserve to know that state funds for the event are used transparently and accountably,” he said. “They should know precisely how money for the Tour of Missouri is being spent, and that the event is being run in a way that minimizes the cost to taxpayers.”

Suburban Atlanta-based Medalist Sports is managing the race. While the Tourism Division provides $1.5 million to fund the race, the remainder comes from corporate and private donors and $500,000 from a state finance board.
“We have always operated above the board,” said Lieutenant Gov. Peter Kinder, who chairs the Missouri Tourism Commission, during a conference call Tuesday afternoon. “We have always been transparent ... this will continue.”

Kinder lobbied for the race and had said the state could lose more than $1.5 million by canceling the race and breaking contracts with vendors and host cities. Kinder asked race supporters to contact the governor’s office to urge Nixon to release the race money. On Tuesday, Kinder thanked all the supporters who called and e-mailed Nixon, and credited fans, cyclists, local organizing committees and editorial support from the media for making the difference in unfreezing the race money.

“I am especially delighted to welcome Gov. Jay Nixon to the ranks of supporters for the race,” Kinder said.

The Tourism Commission had a special meeting Friday where it voted unanimously to reaffirm support for the race. The event, in 2007 and 2008 combined, brought in nearly $60 million in tourism money throughout the state with an estimated audience of 802,000 people.

Chris Aronhalt, of Medalist Sports, said during Tuesday’s conference call that “unbelievable support was expressed throughout the state, country and world” for the race. Seven Tour de France teams are scheduled to compete here in September. Some of the cyclists competing in the Tour de France heard of the Tour of Missouri’s security within hours of Nixon’s announcement and called Medalist to express their relief.

“We are very relieved and very excited for the final two months of planning,” Aronhalt said. “No question, a big sigh of relief was felt at the office today.”

The local organizing committee had scheduled a meeting, before Nixon’s announcement, for today. McIntosh said the committee was “keeping our fingers crossed that it would go on” and continued to plan despite the uncertainty of the event’s future in the past week.

“We are still excited about having this event in Sedalia,” he said. “I think it’s still the biggest sporting event to come to town.”

The local committee lost about three days on one of its fundraising campaigns to sell race banners that will hang on light poles along Broadway Boulevard and Limit Avenue. The hope is to sell 100 banners at $100 each, with the sponsor keeping the banner after the race.

“We are down to the deadline to get those sold and get them into production,” McIntosh said. “This week is the week we need to have them sold and released for production.”

Overall, McIntosh doesn’t think the hiccup in funding will affect fundraising efforts.

McIntosh was pleased Nixon made the decision quickly to release the $1.5 million.

“It really would have became critical for us in another couple weeks,” he said. “Do we really go ahead and start spending some hard dollars we couldn’t recover?”

The threat of canceling the event could even drum up even more support for the race this year, Kinder said.

“We believe with the attention, ironically, that this little dust up has caused, it has given our race a more charged up effect with this 2009 version,” Kinder said.