The Philadelphia Inquirer Newspaper is reporting that The Philadelphia International Championship race is in jeopardy of being canceled due to a $500,000 budget shortage. The race organizers have raised only $1.2 million of the $1.7 million needed to promote the UCI event. Despite the title sponsor TD Bank’s contributions, the race will still face a budget gap shortfall due to the City of Philadelphia’s own budget crisis. The newspaper has also reported that the city, which used to provide police and other services for free, has decided to charge the race organizers for the city’s services this year.

All of this comes on the eve of the 25th Anniversary of the Philadelphia International Championship. Jerry Casale, who co-founded the race, didn’t blame Philadelphia. “The city has been a great partner for 24 years. Everybody is facing an economic crisis,” he said to the Inquirer.
“This is an event that adds so much to the quality of life and vibrancy [of] the city,” said Loree Jones, former city managing director, who now is executive director of the Manayunk Development Corp. “It would be a terrible loss.”

City Councilman Curtis Jones knows the importance of the race. “We understand there is a recession, but we don’t want to lose this. I’m going to try to rally some people with deep, deep pockets and see what we can do.”

According to the race organizers, the race more than pays for itself, by bringing between $15 million to 20 million in revenue to the city of Philadelphia.

The most impressive part of the event has to be the Manayunk Wall, with it’s 17 percent climb.
Past winners include, none other than Lance Armstrong, as well as George Hincapie, and even Olympic Medal winner Eric Heiden.

Past winners include Americans Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie and Eric Heiden. Last year Danish rider Matti Breschel (Saxo Bank) prevailed on the Philadelphia course, which takes in the famous Manayunk Wall, with a gradient of up to 17 percent.