Just 2 venues left to do battle for 2018 WEG
Wellington, Florida, has withdrawn its bid to host the 2018 World Equestrian Games (WEG) due to a sponsor conflict.
The main sponsor of Wellington is Rolex, which agreed a 10-year deal in December 2013. A $1million (£610,000) Rolex bonus was dropped earlier this year due to conflicting shows.
Equestrian Sport Productions (ESP), which put forward the bid on behalf of the centre, met with the FEI before announcing its withdrawal.
Mark Bellissimo of ESP said: “While I believe we had a very strong technical bid, and I am confident we could have run a exciting, unique and successful WEG, the marketing conditions would have precluded us from honouring our commitments to a valued sponsor.”
Only 2 candidates remain in the bidding process — Bromont in Quebec and Lexington in Kentucky, which hosted WEG in 2010.
This article was first published in Horse & Hound magazine (3 April 2014)
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Sophia Heath joined Horse & Hound in July 2013 having previously worked for the Daily Telegraph's Olympics website, CNN International and Omnisport. A Durham graduate with a Masters in journalism from City University, Sophia has evented, showjumped and hunted. Sophia left Horse & Hound in early 2015 to join an international boating website.