The city’s mayor Boris Johnson has taken responsibility for the decision to pull out, claiming it was entirely his call and that the event does not represent value for money.
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Tourism group Welcome to Yorkshire, which hosted last year’s event, warned of a seven-figure deficit for the year 2014/15, largely due to the race. “The Government and Boris Johnson have serious questions to answer”.
Mr Johnson said: “I’m afraid I have got to put my hands up here and say I took the decision not to go forward with it”. A spike in interest from countries outside Europe such as the United Arab Emirates, and the U.S. have seen sponsorship revenues soar, while in Europe the event has become more popular than ever with increased interest from Italy and the Netherlands.
“To ensure value for money, we must make hard choices”, Leon Daniels, managing director of surface transport at TfL, told BBC Sport.
“In the end chucking in £35m on a one-off event or putting that into long-term infrastructure improvements for cycling – stuff that will make cycling safer for decades to come – it’s a no-brainer”, he said.
The decision to refuse happened because of a lack of outside funding, according to Isabel Dedring, London’s deputy mayor for transport.
Mannheim and Munster are among the German cities previously mentioned as possible venues for the Grand Depart. He said: “We have always said that the return of the Tour was subject to funding”.
Chris Boardman, the former Olympic and Tour de France cyclist, who is now policy adviser to British Cycling, said he could understand the decision.
The report, “Three Inspirational Days”, said a quarter of everyone living in the Yorkshire and Humber region came out to watch and the Tour attracted 113,000 visitors from outside the United Kingdom, generating £33m into the United Kingdom economy.
“Welcome to Yorkshire’s Sir Gary Verity said the shortfall was outweighed by the “£102m economic benefit” to the region.
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When Yorkshire had the honour of getting the race up and running in 2014, the total cost for staging the three English stages was £27 million.
