I'd disagree, Shaka inherited an eventual final 4 team with an NBA first rounder in LS1 and could only muster a CBI invite his first year. The first year after coaching changes are going to be a struggle no matter what the roster.
I was going to write about how great it would be if we had closed-door scrimages at home... then realized that it would make no difference to us fans and getting some away exposure is always a good thing.
There are quite a few races that have really really long sections of cobblestone (33 miles+) that are raced in the rain frequently, so it's not going to be something they haven't seen before. Now if there is a crash, it'll be a huge opportunity for a breakaway. In terms of excitement potential...
Relative to the $10 million the city paid for the Redskins training center and $500,000 annually to bring the team in each year for less than 10k fans, the turn-out has been very good and we haven't even seen the headlining events yet.