Cycling
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CYCLING is hungry for funding in NSW and long-serving administrator Phill Bates has called on the state government to cut his sport a fair slice of the pie.
Bates has made a tough call to cancel the popular NSW Grand Prix cycling series following confirmation the NSW Government would not chip in for the bills this year.
It had previously supplied about one third of the total money needed to run the event annually.
The Grand Prix was introduced in 2010 and combined race stages at Bathurst, Gosford, Parramatta, Coogee and Cronulla.
After just one year on the calendar the NSW Government cut its share of the funding by 80 per cent, and as a result the series was reduced to just two rounds - at Cronulla and Wollongong.
The Grand Prix continued for three years under the same format and was due to be held again in December.
But Bates was forced to issue a press release on Monday announcing the cancellation of the 2014 series.
‘‘The NSW Grand Prix Cycling, staged annually since 2010, will not proceed in 2014 due to
no support from the NSW Government,’’ the release read.
Bates was shattered to have to ditch the event he instigated four years ago, and believes the government needs to spread its funding more evenly across all sports.
‘‘Sport hasn't got much of a budget, so it's a bit of a dilemma that they have with sport in NSW,’’ Bates said.
‘‘It doesn't matter which government's in, there's got to be a bit of a change towards funding for sport.
‘‘People say it's an event that should have it's own funding, well the NSW Government is funding rugby league to the tune of $5 billion just to have the NRL grand final in Sydney until 2019.
‘‘Without that one third (of funding) it's never going to happen.’’
Bates paid credit to Wollongong City Council and Sutherland Shire Council, as well as the respective local Members for Parliament who lobbied the state government for funding.
But he says the event simply wasn’t viable without the support of government funds.
He is hopeful of securing the needed money in 2015 to stage the Grand Prix again next year.
‘‘I'm sure council will be keen to ressurect the series if we can get it up and running next year,’’ Bates said.
‘‘I know several councillors are already working on plans to make sure it does happen next year.
‘‘From my perspective, I'm a long term administrator of the sport and it's pretty disappointing that we seem to be losing more events than gaining.’’
Wollongong City Council undertook extensive work to improve the road around Flagstaff Hill in order to gain approval to join the Grand Prix circuit in 2011.
The series has attracted some of the world’s best road cyclists over the past four years and was televised each year on Channel Nine.