Local organizers disappointed over ‘09 Tour’s route

Tuesday’s news that Hannibal will not be a part of the 2009 Tour of Missouri came as a disappointment to local organizers.
“We’re a little disappointed, obviously,” said Terry Sampson, executive director of the Hannibal Area Chamber of Commerce. “We thought it would be a good thing for the city of Hannibal and for the area in terms of bringing some people to the area, giving the local residents a chance to see a professional sporting event like this. I think we were all looking forward to it and we are a little disappointed about it. Hopefully the choice they made was the right one. Hopefully it will continue in years to come and we’ll get another shot at it.”
“We’re a little disappointed to be honest,” said Beau Hicks, executive director of the Hannibal Convention and Visitors Bureau. “I really thought they would look to try and take it to some parts of the state that hadn’t had the experience before.”
Tour officials will probably point out they are taking the event into new areas, only those new areas are along a southern route, which includes Farmington, St. Genevieve and Cape Girardeau.
“I would lie if I didn’t say that I think politics doesn’t play into it a bit,” said Hicks. “The southeast corner of the state has definitely wanted it and I think politically seeing that the lieutenant governor (Peter Kinder) is from there probably gives them a little better chance at getting that corner of the state involved than perhaps our corner to be real honest.”
During Tuesday’s press conference, Kinder said interest in this year’s event was strong.
“We had a record amount of cities inquire about the Tour of Missouri,” said Kinder in a press release. “It is a testament to the success of the race. We faced a very difficult process of eliminating some great cities. Our commitment, however, is to continue to route the course to all areas of the state. This year, for the first time, we will visit the southeast part of Missouri while spending a longer time north of Interstate 70. In addition, we will be able to highlight some of the agricultural regions.”
St. Louis, St. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, Farmington, Rolla, St. James, Jefferson City, Sedalia, Chillicothe, St. Joseph and Kansas City will play host to a leg of this year’s Tour.
Hicks was disappointed by the fact that local organizers never had a chance to meet with Tour officials.
“I didn’t quite like that we didn’t have a site visit, at least not that I or anyone on the committee know of, and no phone calls, no follow-up, no nothing,” he said. “In that aspect I’m a little bit disappointed that there wasn’t at least a little more consideration, and if there was I certainly didn’t know about it and my name was on the bid.”
After missing out on 2009’s race, will Hannibal seek to be a part of the 2010 event?
“We’ll definitely try again,” said Hicks. “That (2010) would be a fantastic year, seeing how we’re going to have the huge year of Twain. I don’t know what case they would have against us in 2010. We definitely would be one that should get it then.”
“Yeah, we’re disappointed, but hopefully it will happen for us again,” said Sampson. “If anything this will just make us a little bit stronger in future attempts because we already have a group together we know that’s wanting to do it. We kind of have a feel now for how to do it and maybe we’ll re-look at it next year and see what we think we can do to make it a stronger effort.
“I just personally would like to thank everybody who worked together on this group and all the support we had in trying to get it here.”