Richmond aims to capitalize on marketing opportunity UCI Road Worlds offers

Ronald Crutcher, University of Richmond’s new president, said he wanted more people to learn about Richmond, a school he thinks is vastly underappreciated. Early in Crutcher's term, the university will have the opportunity to showcase itself September 27 when it hosts the start of the UCI Road World Championship’s Men’s Elite Race, the premier race of an event expected to draw about 300 million worldwide viewers.

“I do think the quality of the educational experience at Richmond far exceeds our national reputation and what I want to do is try to close that gap so that people begin to understand what a fabulous place this is,” said Crutcher, who had worked with Ed Ayers, president emeritus who led the push to link Richmond with the race, to hire a consultant to assess the university’s marketing strategy.

Ayers noticed both the benefits of showcasing Richmond to a worldwide audience and the university’s capability to host an event. Richmond’s strong international focus makes the university “a natural fit for an international event,” Ayers wrote in an email.

“The board decided this would be a wonderful way for the university to collaborate with our friends in the city,” Ayers wrote.

“We do think the media coverage of the event will dramatically increase international knowledge of University of Richmond,” said Patricia Rowland, rector of the Board of Trustees.

Rowland said Tim Finchem, a board member who has been the commissioner of the PGA Tour since 1994, has been instrumental in helping Richmond understand the marketing impact the race could have.

“[Finchem] really helped us understand the visibility this could give us internationally for people to see our campus and to see 10,000 people on the campus and to say ‘wow, University of Richmond, I didn’t know about them. I should be considering them,’” Rowland said.

“This event has a very wide reach and potential to expose a significant number of viewers around the world to the University,” Finchem wrote in an email. “I hope many of them will then want to learn more about us.”

In addition to hosting the Men’s Elite Race, Richmond has slots for television commercials to be shown to a national audience throughout the event.

The City of Richmond will host the race September 19-27.

Contact editor-in-chief Jack Nicholson at jack.nicholson@richmond.edu