An expansive opportunity !

Last Sunday, Wollongong was a very busy place.   Ten thousand enthusiastic people got on their bikes and took part in the "Sydney to the Gong " bike ride to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis.  This annual event is a major fund raiser for MS research.

Organisers of the ride are suggesting that if it  is switched from Sunday to Saturday it will open the way for the event to climb to national importance and become the highlight of the tourist year for this city.   When it started twelve years ago four thousand riders made the journey.   Now it is capped at ten thousand - and we are turning people away.   The opportunity is offering to create a iconic event of national importance.

The organisers make a good point.   Those ten thousand bike riders do not ride their bikes back to Sydney.  The ride is accompanied by car loads of family and friends and this leads to picnic lunches and family get-togethers before the start of the transport operation to get bikes and riders back home.   If it were held on a Saturday, it would open a huge tourist opportunity for the ride to become a weekend away for many people.

The tourist spinoff for Wollongong business people would be enormous.  It would mean lifting that ten thousand rider cap and allowing the event to reach it's natural height - and that would mean it would attract media coverage to rival the annual " City to Surf " marathon through the streets of Sydney.  Literally - the sky would be the limit !

Of course there would be problems.   Lifting the numbers cap would mean the need for more police to marshal traffic at key intersections and those living along the route through the Royal National park - and specially along Lawrence Hargreave drive would be marooned in their homes for several hours, but the people of Bathurst cheerfully accept similar problems to allow the great car race on the mountain to be run each year in October.

This is a chance to expand what has become a truly amazing charity ride into a national event that will not only create a great reward for MS research, but will put the city of Wollongong on the tourist map.   It is an opportunity that requires the city fathers to " think outside the nine dots " , but also for the people of Wollongong to get behind the event and accept a day of huge visitor numbers and many road closures to accommodate the ride.

Opportunity is not just softly knocking on the door.   The reverberations can be heard for miles around !