Utrecht paid €4 million to host 2015 Tour de France

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The Dutch city of Utrech will pay the organisers of the Tour de France Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) a sum of four million euros to host the Grand Départ of the 2015 race. The purported amount was revealed in the Dutch media last week, but an official document - which details everything from the costs to the number of barriers needed – has now been made public on Utrecht.nl.

"The community agrees to pay a financial contribution to ASO of 4,000,000 € (four million euros) from tax in the terms and schedule," the document, which is written in French, stated.

It then goes on to listing the timescale in which the payments are expected to be made. The first installment of €1.5 million was made on 15 December 2013 and a further payment of the same amount was transferred on October 1. The final payment of €1 million will be handed over on July 5, the day after the 2015 Tour de France begins. The total amount of four million is almost double the €2.5 million paid by Rotterdam, when the Tour last began in the Netherlands.

On top of those costs, Utrecht must fork out for the cost of the security involved, ensure that there is a no-fly zone over the race while it is going on, make free up to 2,000 parking spaces for the organisation and press and fit up to three kilometres of barriers for the start of stage 2.

The 2015 Tour de France will begin in Utrecht on July 4 and finish in Paris on July 26.

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