Cycling UK Forum

ChrisButch wrote:

pjclinch wrote:
If what is now Team Sky survive but with a sharp budget cut I think that would be a Good Thing. They can still do well with merely a good selection of good riders, rather than a suffocating selection of good riders.

Yes. On several occasions they've been fielding teams in simultaneous stage races in different countries. That must be a dispensable luxury.

I think it's a requirement of being a World Tour team to field teams in all World Tour races (maybe not ones in their first year?) and sometimes stage races overlap, so they'll have to continue doing that. They could save money by sending a short-handed skeleton team of breakaway escape artists to the less important race (I think Astana has fielded 5 riders in a 9-rider-team race in the past) and by not sending teams to as many Europe Tour races like the Tour of Britain.

100%JR wrote:Virgin?

Yes he might be able to fund it from the compensation he claimed for not winning an NHS contract or from the money he is saving in taxes by not being domiciled in the UK.

Mike Ashley seems to have plenty of spare cash, especially if he manages to sell Newcastle United. So a Sports Direct/Tri Uk team, riding Muddy Fox badged bikes and kit?

So long as the rules don't limit budgets, it seems a bit naïve to expect sponsors to show restraint if the have the money to spend.

Soccer has "Fair Play" rules.
https://www.uefa.com/community/news/newsid=2064391.html

The most obvious thing to me is that clubs cannot run at a loss. However, a cycling team will have virtually no income apart from sponsorship: the prze money is generally small and they have no way of collecting gate money.

TrevA wrote:Mike Ashley seems to have plenty of spare cash, especially if he manages to sell Newcastle United. So a Sports Direct/Tri Uk team, riding Muddy Fox badged bikes and kit?

Dunno how far £4.50 and a bag of chips will go, tbh.

Being serious, the extent to which Sky has distorted the sport really dawned on me when I attended a talk given by the person who designed their team coach basically without having to be concerned about a budget.

Bonefishblues wrote:

TrevA wrote:Mike Ashley seems to have plenty of spare cash, especially if he manages to sell Newcastle United. So a Sports Direct/Tri Uk team, riding Muddy Fox badged bikes and kit?

Dunno how far £4.50 and a bag of chips will go, tbh.

Being serious, the extent to which Sky has distorted the sport really dawned on me when I attended a talk given by the person who designed their team coach basically without having to be concerned about a budget.

Which is why all the productive staff connected, have jumped ship last year!

Like who?

"History and economic reality are against Brailsford. If he can pull it off, it will be a far more unlikely feat than winning the Tour de France six times in seven seasons with three different riders. Then again 10 years ago no one thought that was possible." https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/ ... ord-cyling

Comcast to continue part-funding Team Sky through to 2021.They're allegedly willing to put up 70% with the remainder coming from other sponsors.That's around £24.5m if the £35m current running costs are to be believed.
https://road.cc/content/news/254305-liv ... LH3OZlg6Lk

Probably carry on regardless after that

Whilst complete changes of sponsorship do happen, it seems fairly common for a sponsor to come on board with a team & work their way up to main sponsor over several seasons (minor>major>lead).

The other complication that needs to be worked out is that, I believe, the team is owned by Sky rather than just sponsored by them so ownership will need to be sorted as well. If they just closed the team down would Sky be liable for redundancy payments for employees (& would riders with multi-year contracts count in that)? It might even work out cheaper (or not significantly more expensive) for Sky to carry on for a bit.

It is probably more complicated than that, companies in several different countries, complicated contracts and agreements,advisors and consultants, co-sponsors..

Postboxer wrote:Maybe Dyson or someone like that? Googling reveals Dyson have sponsored Bath rugby for the last four years and will do until at least 2023.

Dyson could sponsor a team and 'Hoover up' all the prizes