THE Daily Echo can today reveal why Southampton didn’t bid to stage one of the world’s most famous sailing events.

A Freedom of Information request by the Echo has discovered the city council snubbed the chance to host the latest edition of the round-the-world Clipper Race because it could not afford it.

Winning the bid would have cemented Southampton’s claim as the home of ocean racing, which it regained last year by hosting the start and finish of the 2011-12 event.

It has been estimated that the prestigious event, founded by Hampshire-based sailing legend Sir Robin Knox, which started and finished at Ocean Village, netted the region’s economy an estimated £5m.

Thousands packed Ocean Village to see off and welcome home the fleet of yachts helmed by professional skippers, but crewed by amateurs who had put their lives on hold and paid huge sums to take part.

Organisers were so impressed they offered Southampton the chance to hold it again.

But as reported, the race has turned its back on Southampton and will be based in London.

The Freedom of Information request discovered the council did not bid because it claimed it could not afford the £500,000 bill to stage the event again – despite the predicted economic benefits.

A statement said: “Committing to a minimum of half a million pounds for the 2013/2014 race was an obligation we as an authority could not justifiably underwrite at a time when we were making such huge savings.

“There was potential to reduce this commitment through business sponsorship but we judged such a high financial target to be unrealistic.”

When asked whether any elected Labour councillor made the decision not to bid, it replied: “There was no formal councillor-led decision made on this as there was no structured bidding process.”

A spokesman added the then council leader Richard Williams had been made aware of the offer in March and April but could not confirm who took the decision.

Current leisure boss Cllr Matt Tucker, left, who was not in the Cabinet during the bidding period, said a solution could have been found through business sponsorship.

He said interested businesses had approached him about bidding again.

He said: “They are enthusiastic to work in a future bid and we are always interested in working with partners and by no stretch of the imagination are we not interested in Clipper.

“The difficulty was literally they had a better offer.”

Clipper Ventures, the Gosport-based firm behind the race, had offered the event last time round at a discounted rate of over £70,000 because it suited it to have the race start and finish near its headquarters.

But this time round it had to ask for £500,000 for putting it on.

Jonathan Levy, the director of business development at Clipper Ventures said: “Even though there might have been a good rate of return, they had to make a judgement and you can understand that.”

Opposition Tory group leader Cllr Royston Smith said he understood the council was under financial pressure, but a negotiation should have taken place.

He said: “I would have hoped that would have shown we still wanted to do it and if they said no we could have it two years’ time.”

This would depend on business leaders raising the majority of the £500,000.

But Hampshire Chamber of Commerce chief executive Jimmy Chesnutt said he doubted whether in the current climate businesses would be able to.

He said: “I think it would be very difficult. That sort of money is not sloshing around.

“People want to know what return they would be getting for £500,000 and have to look their board members in the eye and say we are going to get more than £500,000 from that.

“I think the days of sponsoring big races are over.”