The final draft of a contract to run the TT is still a work in progress but it is expected to be finalised soon. Economic Development Minister Laurence Skelly said he didn’t want to be any more specific than that at this stage. 

The contract, with promotions company Vision Nine, was to have seen them take over the promotion side of the TT and Classic TT from next year but this has now been delayed until at least 2018 once all contractual details have been finalised. 

An announcement was originally made in March by the Department of Economic Development that it was to enter a 10-year deal with Vision Nine, promoters of the Boardmasters’ surf and music festival in Cornwall. Vision Nine, which already lists the TT in the ‘Events we produce’ section on its website, and illustrates it with a photograph of a road bike, hopes to increase visitor numbers to between 76,500 and 125,000 during the course of the next 10 years. 

The company hopes to get as many as 85,000 for the TT alone and aims to make the event more family friendly with a range of extra attractions that appeal not just to fans of the bike racing. ACU Events will continue to run the actual races.