Interesting - IHT article on the impact of doping scandals on cycling sponsorships

[Powerful Pete]

Very interesting article on the impact of scandals and the retirement of Lance on the world of sponsorships for cycling. Read it here on the IHT web page.

Professional cycling appears [duh] to be in real trouble on this one. Apparently the Landis affair has done even more lasting damage than other scandals, given the fact that it is being associated with the TdF.

 

[Rolfrae]

Very interesting article on the impact of scandals and the retirement of Lance on the world of sponsorships for cycling. Read it here on the IHT web page.

Professional cycling appears [duh] to be in real trouble on this one. Apparently the Landis affair has done even more lasting damage than other scandals, given the fact that it is being associated with the TdF.

Cycling is surely heading into a period of regression/recession. Whether or not it will rise out of this again depends entirely on how all the main players react to the current situation. Big races like the Tour will always exist but many smaller races are bound to disappear - and some already have.

 

[Bro Deal]

This could be what sinks the ProTour, which is built on a foundation of very big, expensive teams. T-Mobile has decided to ride out the storm, but how many other sponsors will throw up their hands and abandon the sport?

This has to what is behind the change in attitude in the IPCT. Riis may have been doped to the eyeballs as a rider but as a team owner he knows which side his bread is buttered on. The sport is on the brink. It will be interesting if the authorities are willing to make radical changes or if they will try to hunker down hope the latest scandals pass. I think the signs are there indicating that they will change, but the cynical part of me looks at the response to previous scandals and thinks they will wait until truly hit bottom.

 

[Rolfrae]

This could be what sinks the ProTour, which is built on a foundation of very big, expensive teams. T-Mobile has decided to ride out the storm, but how many other sponsors will throw up their hands and abandon the sport?

This has to what is behind the change in attitude in the IPCT. Riis may have been doped to the eyeballs as a rider but as a team owner he knows which side his bread is buttered on. The sport is on the brink. It will be interesting if the authorities are willing to make radical changes or if they will try to hunker down hope the latest scandals pass. I think the signs are there indicating that they will change, but the cynical part of me looks at the response to previous scandals and thinks they will wait until truly hit bottom.

I think you are right on all counts. The Spanish teams are the ones doing least to respond to this, mainly because they have most to lose. But look at the way cycling in Spain is turning out. As I said on another post, it's like asking the KKK to stop being racist - doping is in their blood (excuse the pun) and they have no idea how to stop. They'll just keep on keeping on until the sport/teams have died, then throw their hands up and shout, "how the hell did that happen?"

 

[fbircher]

This could be what sinks the ProTour, which is built on a foundation of very big, expensive teams. T-Mobile has decided to ride out the storm, but how many other sponsors will throw up their hands and abandon the sport?

This has to what is behind the change in attitude in the IPCT. Riis may have been doped to the eyeballs as a rider but as a team owner he knows which side his bread is buttered on. The sport is on the brink. It will be interesting if the authorities are willing to make radical changes or if they will try to hunker down hope the latest scandals pass. I think the signs are there indicating that they will change, but the cynical part of me looks at the response to previous scandals and thinks they will wait until truly hit bottom.

If even a small handful of big sponsors get serious about ending doping within the ranks of their own teams, it will ultimately put pressure on all the other teams to follow suit. The sponsors who put up the biggest money to fund the major teams will not accept spending a fortune to guarantee that their guys race clean, while being routinely trounced by lesser teams who resort to doping to win. After that happens a few times, they will go to the UCI, ASO, WADA, etc., and demand that those governing bodies put a stop to it. The governing bodies will then have a simple choice: either stop the doping, or watch the funding that their existence depends on disappear. It's too soon to know for sure, but it looks as if Telekom and CSC may be moving in that direction.

 

[helmutRoole2]

How much you (anyone) wana bet Armstrong will make a come back?

He'll come back. It'll be like the latest Rocky movie, replete with HGH as per Stalone's come back. And yes, I did see Stalone's head and it does rival mine in size.

 

[fbircher]

How much you (anyone) wana bet Armstrong will make a come back?

He'll come back. It'll be like the latest Rocky movie, replete with HGH as per Stalone's come back. And yes, I did see Stalone's head and it does rival mine in size.

If half the peleton gets banned, there may be enough openings for some cycling retirees to make a comeback. Maybe Armstrong, Lemond, Hinault, Indurain and a few others could form a team and do an old timers reunion tour? Ferrari could spike their prune juice with EPO, HGH, etc. Who would suspect Grandpa was on the juice?

 

[Bro Deal]

If half the peleton gets banned, there may be enough openings for some cycling retirees to make a comeback.

I am waiting for a few more people to get tossed. Then I'll be able to ride. Maybe we could put together a cyclingforums team. I am sure the ASO would choose us over Unibet.

 

[limerickman]

Very interesting article on the impact of scandals and the retirement of Lance on the world of sponsorships for cycling. Read it here on the IHT web page.

Professional cycling appears [duh] to be in real trouble on this one. Apparently the Landis affair has done even more lasting damage than other scandals, given the fact that it is being associated with the TdF.

Very good article, PP.

Interesting that the article makes the point that the really big sponsors like the BMW's etc sponsor sports like F1 and football (soccer - to the uninitiated).

I think cycling needs to look at where it is going.
Personally, I think the sport should return to it's traditional support/participation base here in Europe and shelve plans to try to break in to markets outside of Europe, with the exception of Australia where there has always been an interest/participation in our sport.

Trying to get in to new markets has been part of the problem with the sport and is linked to the doping scandals post 1998.
The UCI's wish to open new markets and doping, are inextricably linked in my view.

 

[whiteboytrash]

Lim agreed. You don't see the curling or Gaelic football federations trying to promote their sports in the US. You only need to look at the cricket world to see what happens when you put on sporting tournaments to make money rather than for the sport itself. ie the best teams were meant to make the super 8's. They didn't and therefore you had very boring games with lowly ranked teams at the biggest venues. Cycle road racing will always a European sport plain and simple. The tour survived two world wars and 100+ years without the big money and global interest. Leave baseball to the American flag waving and drugs. Cycling can be left to the man in the street. There is no other sport where you can step out your own front door and see the best in Europe pass you by.

Very good article, PP.

Interesting that the article makes the point that the really big sponsors like the BMW's etc sponsor sports like F1 and football (soccer - to the uninitiated).

I think cycling needs to look at where it is going.
Personally, I think the sport should return to it's traditional support/participation base here in Europe and shelve plans to try to break in to markets outside of Europe, with the exception of Australia where there has always been an interest/participation in our sport.

Trying to get in to new markets has been part of the problem with the sport and is linked to the doping scandals post 1998.
The UCI's wish to open new markets and doping, are inextricably linked in my view.

 

[Powerful Pete]

What I continue to find interesting is just how cheap, in relative terms, cycling sponsorships are. You can become one of the flagship sponsors of the TdF for under 10 million Euros. Pocket change in corporate terms.

In any event, I believe the article is also missing the point a bit. I really don't see how and why the BMWs or Oracles would ever be interested in sponsoring cycling.

I think that cycling will have to 'come back to its European roots' if for no other reason that the sponsors seriously interested in the media exposure - which remains overwhelmingly European - will continue to be smallish European corporations.

The fact is that companies such as Saunier Duval, Liquigas, Quickstep and Innergetic are actually able to finance relatively high level teams. Not the Big Corporate Boys.

We will see what happens.

 

[limerickman]

Lim agreed. You don't see the curling or Gaelic football federations trying to promote their sports in the US. You only need to look at the cricket world to see what happens when you put on sporting tournaments to make money rather than for the sport itself. ie the best teams were meant to make the super 8's. They didn't and therefore you had very boring games with lowly ranked teams at the biggest venues. Cycle road racing will always a European sport plain and simple. The tour survived two world wars and 100+ years without the big money and global interest. Leave baseball to the American flag waving and drugs. Cycling can be left to the man in the street. There is no other sport where you can step out your own front door and see the best in Europe pass you by.

Despite Ireland's beating two test nations and drawing with another test nation at the cricket world cup - I agree with your analogy to cricket.

But the contrast between cricket and cycling is interesting - to make cycling
in the words of dear old Hein Verbruggen "grow the (TV) viewer numbers - supporters want to see faster and more competitive cycling (Cycle Sport March 1998)".
So instead of letting the water carriers have their day, the UCI wanted to ensure that cycling was all about riders getting faster and faster to "improve the viewer numbers".
And we all know where this strategy has landed us.

 

[whiteboytrash]

What I continue to find interesting is just how cheap, in relative terms, cycling sponsorships are. You can become one of the flagship sponsors of the TdF for under 10 million Euros. Pocket change in corporate terms.

In any event, I believe the article is also missing the point a bit. I really don't see how and why the BMWs or Oracles would ever be interested in sponsoring cycling.

I think that cycling will have to 'come back to its European roots' if for no other reason that the sponsors seriously interested in the media exposure - which remains overwhelmingly European - will continue to be smallish European corporations.

The fact is that companies such as Saunier Duval, Liquigas, Quickstep and Innergetic are actually able to finance relatively high level teams. Not the Big Corporate Boys.

We will see what happens.

People forget where cycling sponsorship came from; They are the factories that line the roads between the towns in France, Italy and Belgium. Historically as the races went past the factories owners and workers would see it as a competition between the other factories on who’s sponsored riders would win. The support of these companies comes from a true love and passion for the sport not from wanting to promoting Coca-Cola in Europe. Companies like Saunier Duval, Liquigas, Quickstep would also obtain varies materials from the other companies that produced steel, concrete and other such products and they would all talk of cycling. It promoted the towns and the factories and the rivalries. The Italians still see the sport like this. It’s a working class mans sport and they love to see pain and suffering on all the riders as their lives are just as hard. If Armstrong could never understand why these people couldn’t embrace him like the yuppie fist pumping Americans did then he really did know the sport or love the sport. Lim is right in saying the UCI really don’t know the product they are selling. This is not formula 1 or 12-ft yacht racing but hard men on bikes trying to ride 300km a day through rain, hail and snow to be the winner for themselves and their town. Keep it simple.

 

[limerickman]

People forget where cycling sponsorship came from; They are the factories that line the roads between the towns in France, Italy and Belgium. Historically as the races went past the factories owners and workers would see it as a competition between the other factories on who’s sponsored riders would win. The support of these companies comes from a true love and passion for the sport not from wanting to promoting Coca-Cola in Europe. Companies like Saunier Duval, Liquigas, Quickstep would also obtain varies materials from the other companies that produced steel, concrete and other such products and they would all talk of cycling. It promoted the towns and the factories and the rivalries. The Italians still see the sport like this. It’s a working class mans sport and they love to see pain and suffering on all the riders as their lives are just as hard. If Armstrong could never understand why these people couldn’t embrace him like the yuppie fist pumping Americans did then he really did know the sport or love the sport. Lim is right in saying the UCI really don’t know the product they are selling. This is not formula 1 or 12-ft yacht racing but hard men on bikes trying to ride 300km a day through rain, hail and snow to be the winner for themselves and their town. Keep it simple.

Exactly : couldn't have put it better.

Loyalty to the sport is based in the grassroots of countries like Belgium/France/Holland/Spain/Italy/Switzerland/Austria - that is the bedrock of the sport.
Team/riders/supporters in these countries is who the UCI should be targetting.
Germany is another country - and to a lesser extent U.K., Ireland and Australia.

The UCI took it's eye off the ball by trying to market the sport in countries where cycling isn't even a minority sport.
By trying to entice larger sponsorship, the UCI sold whatever soul it may have possessed on the altar of, "spreading the message".

The UCI needs to go back to basics - allow the Giro to be Italian, TDf to be French and the Vuelta to be Spanish : and get the ordinary folks back in to the sport and to support local sponsors/races.
Look at great races like the Midi Libre - it almost vanished through lack of sponsorship.
Because the UCI focussed on major coporate bodies sponsoring cycling - money floated toward the more "prestigious" events like the GT's.
Looking to corporates entities to salvage the sport has been a shortsighted policy on the UCI's part.
Corporate entities only want to see TV figures increasing - which has nothing whatsoever got to do with the essence of our sport.

 

[whiteboytrash]

Getting back to cricket for a moment; The ICC banned the use of musical instruments at the grounds in the West Indies as they didn’t want the TV coverage to be disturbed by the noise... musical instruments and crowd atmosphere is what makes the games great in this part of the world as the tea drinking scone set make it great in England. What happens ? No one buys tickets to the games, they alienate the locals, the grounds end up half empty thus a sub-standard TV coverage... you can't manufacture good sport it comes naturally..... so the ICC then allow musical instruments to be used in the crowds but it was to late to save the tournament. Cycling is the same. You can't package it up in 30 minute highlights its slow drinking sport like a test match. That’s what makes it great, it builds like a chess game. Lim right again. So many small races have died because the UCI has been pumping up the big GT and because they couldn't sell the TV rights they tried to clamour in the big sponsors and hide the positive tests. (read ***** Vogt book on the number of positives tests that have been hidden from the World Champs which is a race the UCI owns - criminal).

The Grand Prix des Naionals should still exist – every big rider loved that race. LeMond loved that race and he would ride the classics every year before the Tour and often the Giro. Every rider did until now they just want to do well in the Tour and hide away for the rest of the year in Spain. What good does that do for the sport ? stupid.

Exactly : couldn't have put it better.

Loyalty to the sport is based in the grassroots of countries like Belgium/France/Holland/Spain/Italy/Switzerland/Austria - that is the bedrock of the sport.
Team/riders/supporters in these countries is who the UCI should be targetting.
Germany is another country - and to a lesser extent U.K., Ireland and Australia.

The UCI took it's eye off the ball by trying to market the sport in countries where cycling isn't even a minority sport.
By trying to entice larger sponsorship, the UCI sold whatever soul it may have possessed on the altar of, "spreading the message".

The UCI needs to go back to basics - allow the Giro to be Italian, TDf to be French and the Vuelta to be Spanish : and get the ordinary folks back in to the sport and to support local sponsors/races.
Look at great races like the Midi Libre - it almost vanished through lack of sponsorship.
Because the UCI focussed on major coporate bodies sponsoring cycling - money floated toward the more "prestigious" events like the GT's.
Looking to corporates entities to salvage the sport has been a shortsighted policy on the UCI's part.
Corporate entities only want to see TV figures increasing - which has nothing whatsoever got to do with the essence of our sport.