Businesses that were expecting a multi-million dollar boost from tens of thousands of visitors during the week of the UCI Road World Championships have been left scratching their heads.
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During the first weekend of racing, away from the Fan Zone in Lang Park, business owners have described Wollongong's CBD as like a ghost town, with some reporting drops in turnover of up to 50 per cent.
Suburbs like Fairy Meadow where the city circuit passes through have had to deal with road closures scaring off customers, despite actual conditions being not as bad as first feared.
Organisers of the cycling event have estimated 300,000 spectators, including 10,000 international tourists, will be drawn to the event. These visitors, along with the teams of cycling professionals and support staff, are expected to deliver a $95 million economic benefit, spread across the Illawarra, NSW and Australia.
Luke Symons, co-owner of hospitality group Good Times Only, which owns bars in the Wollongong CBD including The Prince, Dagwood and Howlin' Wolf, said he was expecting an injection of people into the CBD.
"Elton John played here a couple of years ago and I think it was about 20,000 or so people and there was just chaos in town. We unfortunately haven't been that busy," he said.
"Down on the shoreline seems to be quite busy, but Wollongong has been an absolute ghost town."
Mr Symons says across the group's venues, business has been down by 40 per cent. This has been driven by tourists sampling venues and not staying for long and locals avoiding the CBD due to road closures.
For weeks, Wollongong City Council and event organisers have been warning locals that the city will be different during the nine days of the event.
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But major events have a habit of bringing out the unexpected.
Similar warnings about traffic chaos and gridlock were issued prior to the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast in 2018. After the games kicked off and the promised spectators failed to materialise, games chairman Peter Beattie implored visitors from Brisbane to make the trip down the M1 and for locals to frequent cafes and restaurants in their city.
Studies of previous UCI World Championship events, commissioned by organisers and local councils, highlighted the economic benefit host cities gained.
A 2019 study after the championships in Harrogate, Great Britain found 69,000 unique visitors travelled to the city, contributing to total event attendance in Harrogate of over 299,000 over nine days.
Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said attendance will peak this weekend.
"The 300,000 people are over the nine days, with the final day of racing next Sunday expected to be the most popular with 50,000 to 75,000 people spread out across the 70-plus km course," he said.
It remains to be seen if Wollongong will surpass Harrogate's total, however with cycling's heartland in Europe, whether a similar number of people make the trip from Europe to Australia as from continental Europe to Great Britain is an open question.
Some professional teams decided the trip was too far, with Ireland choosing to not send a team and our closest international competitor, New Zealand, telling cyclists they had to pay their own way to Wollongong.
After the first weekend, local opinions were mixed.
Lachlan Stevens, owner of burger bar His Boy Elroy said the difference between his food truck in Lang Park and the Keira Street outlet was stark.
"Yesterday at Lang Park, the food truck went gangbusters, there was a really good atmosphere at the race finish line, but at our store we saw a 15 per cent downturn to a normal Sunday."
Kayahan Gunes, co-owner of Evil Eye Cafe, which has outlets on the race route on Cliff Road and Cabbage Tree Lane, said he wasn't sure what to expect.
"On Saturday it was pretty quiet, and then on Sunday it was also a slow start and I sent some people home early, but after 11 we were pretty flat chat until 3, 4pm," he said.
Of those business owners the Mercury spoke to, all said road closures were a factor in driving locals away from businesses close to the race route.
Grant Logue, owner of Harley and John's Seafood in Fairy Meadow said signage in his areas was deterring shoppers, despite the road being open.
"We had a few customers come in saying there were issues with the road and that it was blocked off," he said.
Mr Logue, who supported the event and said it was great for the city, started contacting the race organisers, Wollongong Council and his local MP, Paul Scully. All were responsive and by Sunday morning the signage was altered.
Despite this, business was down by about half of a regular weekend.
"It was those road closures on Saturday, and people got scared. People hopefully by the middle of the week should understand what's going on and Wollongong is still open."
Destination Wollongong general manager Mark Sleigh said Sunday's event was a test of how the city would work ahead of the headline events next weekend.
"We always expected that the last Saturday and Sunday were going to be the big days," he said.
"Sunday was going to be a toe-in-the-water kind of day [and] then it builds up to the last weekend which will be the blockbuster."
Back in the Wollongong CBD, Council has sought to activate the Crown Street Mall - a common focus of concern for business owners - with large inflatable sculptures and roving performances, but bar owner Mr Symons said foot traffic didn't equal turnover.
"It's bringing a lot more people on Crown Street, the mall's never looked busier, which is really nice when you're walking through there, but it's just not translating. Even Globe Lane was quiet."
With the days ahead including junior races before the blockbuster men's and women's elite road races on Saturday and Sunday, businesses are recalibrating their expectations.
"A lot of frustrations are around over-ordering stock with the assumption that this week was going to produce an uplift in trade, especially in the shopping centre precinct, which it hasn't," Mr Stevens said.
"From our perspective, we are just going to focus on the food truck down at Lang Park and we'll scale back in Keira Street."
Mr Stevens called on locals to support businesses in the Wollongong CBD.
"Come out to share a little bit of love with a lot of those guys because a lot of business owners have gone all in on this event thinking it was going to produce an uplift in trading and it hasn't produced that uplift."
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