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Govt pulls the plug on End to End coverage
MUDDY GREAT: Riders tackle the hugely popular End to End Challenge last year. This years event will not appear on TV after funding was withdrawn. PHOTO: Mike Proudfoot MP110918 (66).
GOVERNMENT has pulled the plug on funding for TV coverage of the hugely popular Manx End to End Challenge.
Manx company Greenlight Television has filmed the mountain bike event for a number of years and it has been shown on Sky Sports.
But as of this year’s event, on September 9, the Department of Economic Development will no longer provide its £8,500 contribution.
The DED’s Geoff Corkish MHK has argued it no longer makes financial sense to fund filming of an over-subscribed event.
‘It has grown to such an extent that it received entries from 1,700 competitors within two days of it being launched,’ he said.
The event does not run a waiting list as 1,700 competitors is its capacity.
‘It can’t grow any further and what we would like to do is use the money to support other events,’ said Mr Corkish, adding the DED began talking to organisers about the removal of funding a year ago.
‘We are not abandoning it. We’ll still be there to facilitate, indeed we still provide a guarantee against loss and that’s a great comfort to organisers.
‘We’ll still work closely with them.’
Asked whether removing funding for the event because it was so successful made sense in the context of the continued support for coverage of events such as the TT, Mr Corkish said the two were incomparable.
‘The TT attracts so many millions of viewers it would be lunacy if we were to pull away from that,’ he said.
And addressing the question of whether coverage of the End to End could simply be seen as a promotional tool for the island, rather than a way of drumming up entries, Mr Corkish said there was a great deal of Isle of Man coverage on the television and in print year round already.
Mr Corkish said the £8,500 saved would be spent on promoting other events and could even be used to help the End to End ‘expand sideways’ into more of a festival.
‘We may be able to utilise some of that money and build in a festival as we have with the Manx Grand Prix,’ he said. ‘That’s our job, our job is not to strangulate, our job is to build on tourism, working with the organisers whose skill, expertise and passion make the event such a success.’
The Isle of Man Sleepwell Hotels Manx End to End Challenge runs 75km from the Point of Ayre to Cregneash.
The event has been run by the Manx Mountain Bike Club since it began in 1996.
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Weather for Isle of Man
Sunday 19 May 2013
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Temperature: 9 C to 15 C
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Temperature: 8 C to 14 C
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