Ross Priest: Sales pitch complete, time to lead the cheers
| Thursday, Oct 22 2009 11:35 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Oct 22 2009 11:35 PM
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Earlier in the week, Kerry Ryan described himself as a "cheerleader slash salesman." While the Bakersfield Sports Foundation chairman was busy selling cycling through parts of Kern County and into Bakersfield to AEG Sports President Andrew Messick, his counterparts were selling the benefits of Bakersfield being a part of America's biggest cycling race to city and county officials.
The sales pitch was completed Thursday when Bakersfield was selected as one of 16 cities to host a stage for the 2010 Amgen Tour of California.
But Ryan's sales pitch might have been the easiest of the two. "Part of my goal was trying to sell him on our route trying to be a cyclist's route," said Ryan, "And still showcase Bakersfield."
While Ryan, the owner of Action Sports and an avid cyclist, jumped into the scene in 2008, it's been a four-year process for Kern County Board of Trade Executive Director Rick Davis, manager of the city's Convention & Visitors Bureau Don Cohen and many others to bring the event to Bakersfield. Davis described the first year as a recon mission: gathering as much information as possible from AEG and the host cities. His research revealed that getting a stop in Bakersfield would require a partnership between county, city and the cycling community.
When the group first proposed and asked for approval to make a bid to Amgen in 2009, City Manager Alan Tandy was skeptical. Given the city's economic turmoil, Tandy wasn't willing to approve the bid if it relied on city money.
The Bakersfield Sports Foundation, a nonprofit group led by Ryan and a number of cycling enthusiasts, came through with a commitment of more than $100,000.
"Don showed a strong performance on his behalf and the underlying strength of the community," Tandy said. "He really delivered."
Cohen said the group now has more than $120,000 in cash commitments from local businesses and corporations, along with an additional $38,000 from the Convention & Visitors Bureau.
The tour stage becomes the fourth major sporting event slated for the city in 2010. Bakersfield is also hosting the CIF state wrestling tournament, the March Meet drag races and the CIF state basketball tournament in March.
"My impression is that it's a double positive," Tandy said. "First, it has a good economic benefit short term, and second, Bakersfield's image grows."
What the economic impact could be is not known, and the Conventions & Visitors Bureau won't begin to estimate its impact until the event draws closer.
"When we went about selling this, we never sold it from an E.I. (Economic Impact) angle," Cohen said. "This is an image building for us."
Ryan said he envisions as many as 40,000 spectators lining the Panorama Bluffs to watch Lance Armstrong and rest of the Tour field cycle round the grueling circuit and finish near Bakersfield College. While those 40,000 spectators would be an impressive sight, Cohen won't use those figures to estimate the economic impact the one-day event will have on the city and county.
"The best I can do is say we certainly expect hundreds of thousands (of dollars), and possibly millions but beyond that I'd be blowing smoke ..." Ryan said. "At a minimum, hundreds of thousands (of dollars) will pour in. There's a potential, based on the number of attendees, it could bring in millions."
What is known is that the Convention & Visitors Bureau is required to furnish a certain number of hotel rooms for the night before and the night of the stage finish, under the terms of the contract reached between AEG and Bakersfield.
AEG has requested 247 rooms for the night of the finish for 366 individuals. The Foundation is also responsible for an additional 143 rooms the night before the start for cyclists?226-130? support teams and 203 rooms the night of the finish for presumably support teams and the cyclists themselves. AEG will be picking up some of the rooms, while the Bakersfield Sports Foundation is responsible for the teams.
And that's just hotel rooms. There's still paying for security for the event, catering services, and even likely minor repairs to some of the county roads. But those expenditures are accounted for thanks to the Bakersfield Sports Foundation, according to Ryan, Davis and Cohen.
"We've done what we had to do to get the race here," Ryan said. "Now we just show them everything is done. All the infrastructure is done; nothing is left for failure."
For the next six months, Ryan will be leading the cheers to make sure the event is a success.
These are Ross Priest's opinions, not those of The Californian.
