AEG, Co-Owner of T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Puts Amgen Tour of California Bicycle Race on Hiatus for 2020
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The co-owner of T-Mobile Arena — Los Angeles-based Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) — has decided to put the biggest bicycle road race in the U.S. on hiatus for 2020. The Amgen Tour of California race, which drew some of the world’s top bike racers, will not happen next year after launching in 2006.
AEG owner Phil Anschutz, a Colorado resident who enjoyed bicycling, created the race that also attracted prominent bike racing teams that participated in the Tour de France. But the eight-stage race in cities all around California was more than just about racing. The event also staged a “Chairman’s Ride” that involved a local bicycle ride in one of the host cities and a “Chairman’s Dinner” that highlighted important causes to promote bicycling and healthy living.
The Chairman’s bike ride included well-known bicycle people like former Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, former basketball star Bill Walton and legendary Eddy Merckx.
Here’s Walton, who visits Las Vegas every year to do TV work on the Pac-12 basketball tournament at T-Mobile Arena, cycling the Chairman’s Ride from downtown Los Angeles to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena in May 2015. The seven-foot Walton was also a speaker at the arena’s ground breaking in Las Vegas in 2014. AEG, which owns the NHL Los Angeles Kings and Staples Center and many other sports venues worldwide, also owns T-Mobile Arena along with MGM Resorts International and Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley.
The host towns in California also received an economic shot in the arm from the multi-day bike race starting and finishing in their cities. It was also a celebration of bicycling as the Tour would have a bike festival with exhibitors and vendors before and after the stage. Here’s an example of the Tour’s last day festival at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in May 2015.
Kristin Klein, the Tour of California president and AEG Sports executive vice president, said the “business fundamentals” of the race have changed. In a prepared statement in an AEG news release, she said, “This has been a very difficult decision to make, but the business fundamentals of the Amgen Tour of California have changed since we launched the race 14 years ago.
“While professional cycling globally continues to grow and we are very proud of the work we have done to increase the relevance of professional cycling, particularly in the United States, it has become more challenging each year to mount the race. This new reality has forced us to re-evaluate our options, and we are actively assessing every aspect of our event to determine if there is a business model that will allow us to successfully relaunch the race in 2021.”
The AEG release said, “The international competition also carries the distinction of being the only U.S.-based event that has both its men’s and women’s races listed on the UCI WorldTour calendar while being the only event of its kind that concurrently produces men’s and women’s stage races that offer equal prize money.”
The Tour of California’s winners are some of the sport’s biggest names: Egan Bernal and Bradley Wiggins; Tour de France Stage Winners George Bennett; Levi Leipheimer; Michael Rogers; Peter Sagan (record 7-time Tour de France Points Classifications winner, and record 17-stage winner at the Amgen Tour of California); and Tejay van Garderen. And, 10-time Stage Winner Mark Cavendish has won 30 stages at the Tour de France (second all-time for both races).
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