Deutsche Telekom ends sponsorship
- Thread starter lucybears
- Start date
Not sure what you mean by 'competence'?!?itxaradia said:
The Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) is part of the French media group, EPA (Éditions Philippe Amaury), and is well-known as the organiser of various major sporting events, including the Tour de France and Paris-Nice professional cycle road races, and the Dakar Rally. It is not an organisation. The ASO owns not only the Tour de France but Paris-Roubaix and has just aquired Tour of Germany. EPA publishes le Parisien, a local newspaper in greater Paris, as well as its national edition, Aujourd'hui en France. In partnership with SNC L'Equipe, the group also publishes the sports journals l'Équipe, l'Équipe Magazine, France Football and Vélo Magazine. Furthermore, EPA owns the television channel l'Equipe TV.
The Bild (formerly Bild-Zeitung, lit. Picture Newspaper) is a German daily tabloid (in style, although actually broadsheet in size) newspaper published by Axel Springer AG. It is the best-selling newspaper in Europe and has the third-largest circulation worldwide. Its motto, prominently displayed below the logo, is unabhängig, überparteilich (independent, trans-partisan).
T-Online International provides Internet and related services, but also a broad range of multimedia-services, including web-hosting, e-mail services, online-banking and international roaming access. T-Online International launched a joint-venture, named Bild.T-Online.de AG & Co. KG, with the German Axel Springer Verlag publishing house in May 2002. T-Online International owns a 37 % stake in this joint-venture, the purpose of which is to provide contents and entertainment under the domain name <bild.t-online.de>. This joint venture has been reported by European and US-media companies.
And as cyclingheroes said, T-Mobile and T-Online are both divisions of Deutsche Telekom.
ASO and Bild have no formal relationships.
since drugs are so rampant in cycling, the drug companies need to step up their sponsorships. Amgen's sponsorship of the Tour of California is a great start. They should pass out free EPO samples as schwag to all the riders.
Next, Androgel should sponsor the mountain stages of the Tour de France. Heck, maybe even Landis could give out autographed testosterone patches. Perhaps a company that makes intravenous equipment could step up to sponsor the time trials. Vinokourov could endorse his IV of choice.
It is no different than Gatorade being a sponsor because it is the drink of choice.........
The problem is that legitimate companies are being asked to pony up millions of dollars to teams who are often neck deep in doping practices.
The jig is up. No major corporation (e.g., T Mobile, Discovery Channel) needs the grief of risking having their name associated with a team who's riders test positive for doping. These companies are bailing because of their fear that more doping disasters are waiting to happen.
Next, Androgel should sponsor the mountain stages of the Tour de France. Heck, maybe even Landis could give out autographed testosterone patches. Perhaps a company that makes intravenous equipment could step up to sponsor the time trials. Vinokourov could endorse his IV of choice.
It is no different than Gatorade being a sponsor because it is the drink of choice.........
The problem is that legitimate companies are being asked to pony up millions of dollars to teams who are often neck deep in doping practices.
The jig is up. No major corporation (e.g., T Mobile, Discovery Channel) needs the grief of risking having their name associated with a team who's riders test positive for doping. These companies are bailing because of their fear that more doping disasters are waiting to happen.
When I joined this forum, one of the reasons was because there were very smart people, like tmctguer here, who could break down the news and explain things that just didn't make sense to me.tmctguer said:
Thanks tmctguer.
Just think, companies afraid of doping disasters. Who'd have thunk it? Well done, Einstein.
Sorry tmctguer - I had to edit it for people who didn't get what I thought would be obvious sarcasm.tmctguer said:
tmctguer said:
That is the essential point.
Whether one knows the machinations of what teams were or weren't doping -
the fact of the matter is that when a sponsor like TMO, who sponsor a huge amount of different sports/teams across Europe, announces that it is leaving cycling - that announcement will discourage other high profile sponsors from entering the sport.
No reputable brand can afford to allow itself be associated with cheating.
(it's a moot point as to whether or not TMO, as in Corporate TMO as distinct from TMo cycling team, were aware that their cycling team were up to anything......but they're guilty by perceived association).
TMO's withdrawal of their sponsorship for good/ill - is a very serious commercial blow to the entire commercial structure of the sport.
You have guys like Cavendish, Wiggins etc without a team.
The capacity of other sponsors to take up the excess capacity is, i would argue, extremely limited because other sponsors are seriously considering their future in the sport.
Throw in the fact that support staff, such as mechanics and soigneurs will also lose their jobs, it is apparent that Verbruggen/McQuaid tolerance of cheating since 1998 is resulting in this latest implosion.
thanks for the infoearth_dweller said:
I suposse many have said so before but knowing a few professional cyclist I just can't believe doping is so spread and so "unique" to cycling. A proffesional may have as much as a blood test every other day between tests run by the team, the federation and the uci, they are the only sport people subjected to such control.... Footballers and basketball player never have blood test just urine and that in Europe as I was led to think NBA does not do any drug control on its players........ any way cycling will always overcome whatever difficulties it encounter just as riders climb whatever road they meet.....
As for the uci attitude to the sport I think it is greatly misleaded sometimes by paddy, sorry pat's own interests and phobias...
Still, big firms or not my kids will keep riding and so will I
If I were going to sponsor a cycling team, I would insist on one or more of my guys holding key positions within the team's management. They should have free reign of the whole operation; and the moment they got the feeling that they were being kept out of the loop, I'd lower the boom on the operation.
If you give money to a startup, you don't just hope the management doesn't siphon some of the money into their own pockets. You put financial controls in place to detect and prevent it. You get to appoint key people in the operation. I don't see why sponsoring a cycling team, especially with the reputation cycling has, should be any different.
If you give money to a startup, you don't just hope the management doesn't siphon some of the money into their own pockets. You put financial controls in place to detect and prevent it. You get to appoint key people in the operation. I don't see why sponsoring a cycling team, especially with the reputation cycling has, should be any different.
Unless they were part of the problem...and realize what's required to win...and were involved in the institutionalized medical attention...but now don't want to be associated with it because the public would crucify them now that all the laundry is being aired.Bro Deal said:
fbircher made a good point long ago. The powers that be, who once kept the lid on the truth, are now vulnerable to increased police/govt. involvement. They can't control the enforcement anymore ala Festina, etc. So they have to fight it, instead of condoning it out of public view. The sponsors also know that the risks have increased. So they either do an Astana to win, and run that risk, or do a Slipstream and ride like dried turds. No upside really.
I think its delusional to presume that after the 'Festina' scandal, major sponsors didn't make it their business to know exactly what was going on.
It is more likely that they did not want any direct involvement so that they could deny responsability if as with T Mobile currently the **** hits the fan.
The most important sporting lesson is that no-one remembers the guy who comes second. This will always be the case and so will cheating to obtain glory.
If we take a step away from doping for a second and look at other forms of cheating ongoign in top sports such as the 'poisening' of opponents ala Tottenham players in last game of premiership season, costing them Champions League football.
Or ... Tommy Haas potentially being poisened in Russia - Germany Davis Cup Tennis match.
Or ... in UK championship play off final between Cardiff & QPR where a former minder of the Chairman of Cardiff was found to have set the fire alarms off at 2 am on the night of the final !!!!!!
It is more likely that they did not want any direct involvement so that they could deny responsability if as with T Mobile currently the **** hits the fan.
The most important sporting lesson is that no-one remembers the guy who comes second. This will always be the case and so will cheating to obtain glory.
If we take a step away from doping for a second and look at other forms of cheating ongoign in top sports such as the 'poisening' of opponents ala Tottenham players in last game of premiership season, costing them Champions League football.
Or ... Tommy Haas potentially being poisened in Russia - Germany Davis Cup Tennis match.
Or ... in UK championship play off final between Cardiff & QPR where a former minder of the Chairman of Cardiff was found to have set the fire alarms off at 2 am on the night of the final !!!!!!
