Rotorua declines option to bid for marathon worlds

Due to the rising cost of event fees, New Zealand's Rotorua, which hosted the 2006 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, will not bid for a chance to hold the UCI World Marathon Championships in 2012. The popular mountain biking city on the North Island unsuccessfully bid for the 2006, 2009 and 2010 world marathon championships, but did not submit a bid for 2011.

"When we last bid, for 2010, the marketing rights fee was 50,000 [Swiss francs] (NZL$76,000)," said bid organizer Dave Donaldson to The Daily Post. "We went in at 100,000 and missed out but now, for 2012, [the UCI] hiked the price up to €490,000 (NZL$1.15 million). We quickly came to the conclusion that we couldn't entertain the event at that up-front cost, particularly in the current [economic] climate."

When Rotorua hosted the 2006 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, with a week of cross country, downhill and 4X events, about NZL$400,000 was required to secure the rights. The same bid would now cost about €1 million ($2.35 million).

However, the city will host the fifth and final round of the UCI Trials World Cup in September of 2009.