A news conference is expected to be held in Hamilton in early October to announce details of the 2003 World Road Championships, which are scheduled to be held in the steel city in October 2003.

The conference, whose theme will be “The World is Racing to Hamilton,” will take place in early October, approximately one year before the Road Worlds is actually held there. Following the conference, a Canadian contingent of about 20 people, including members of the organizing committee, plus federal, provincial, and Hamilton city officials, will travel overseas to make a presentation on Oct. 10 to UCI delegates attending the 2002 Road Worlds in Zolder, Holland taking place Oct. 11.

Details regarding ticket and tourism packages are expected to be revealed during the presentations. Organizers had opened a Road Worlds 2003 office in Hamilton earlier this year, but it was closed after approximately three months, leading to some speculation that the event was in jeopardy.

But David Braley, owner of the CFL's B.C. Lions, and chairman of the board of the Road Worlds 2003 organizing committee, said this isn't the case. “The office got opened inadvertently,” he said. “It wasn't needed at the time. The bottom line is why pay rent if you don't have to.”

Braley added that organizers did not want potential volunteers showing up at the office only to be told that there was nothing for them to do. For the time being, Braley said the Worlds' office is being housed in another existing Hamilton office. He added that a proper, more visible office will be opened closer to the event date, possibly in late March or April of next year.

The federal government is reportedly committed to giving $10 million to organizers of the 2003 Road Worlds, but Braley refused to say whether any of that money has been handed over yet. “I don't think it's appropriate to discuss anything like funding until an appropriate announcement is made in the near future,” he said.