It boggles the mind that organizers in the Triad area and other smaller areas can put together a financially viable series. However, the organizers in the big Charlotte metro area, with all the shops and vibrant cycling community here, can not.
If you go to the old Summer Series website, they list about 20 or so sponsors. Go to the Racing in the Woods site, which does Triad area races, and they have only 6. Its hard to imagine the Triad sponsors are putting a boat load more $s into their series that what organizers here have been able to gather from theirs', but I'm just theorizing and could be way off the mark. It leaves one to wonder if corporate pressure on the local organizers here to focus more attention on easier to hit profitability targets by focusing on running and/or "charity" events. If you follow the trends in local racing scene, the organizers who used to handle our local mtb races now have a load of running events and very few bike races, outside of some charity rides and the Winter Short Track series. Bike racing, as a whole (road and mtb), has lost a lot of races locally since the primary local organizer was bought out by a larger firm. Again, just theorizing and I may be wrong to be connecting the dots that way.
If I heard it correctly, the downfall of the CMS Timetrial Series started when Humpy Wheeler retired, new management took over the speedway and jacked up the fees. S2F took it over and tried to make it work, but couldn't after a couple rounds last year. Was the city Parks & Rec or WWC increasing fees for the Summer Series over the years?
Regardless of the rationale of the Summer Series demise, I miss it a lot too. It opened up my eyes to the whole Charlotte cycling community, it was a hell of a lot of fun, and really changed my life. I made a LOT of friends by starting racing in that series, and it turned cycling from just a casual solitary hobby into a passionate lifestyle with a community that has become a big part of my life. I keep my fingers crossed that someday, someone will step up and try to revive the local spring/summer mtb race scene again. With the huge variety of trail venues in this city, there is a ton of opportunity.