"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Sponsorship money drying up

Article in the New York Times today about Sponsors pulling out of bicycle racing. Essentially the article says that sponsors are skiddish due to the drug issue, most notably Landis' ongoing troubles, as well as the drop in television coverage world wide, and a drop in attendence. The article gives an example of a european one day race (forget which one) with a 77% drop in attendence this year.

Also the Zurich championship was apparently hit hard because Landis was on a Swiss Team. This is a race that had been run for almost 100 years, including through WW II.

If Professional cycling doesn't clean up the circus, things could be dark for awhile.

Where's that photo that someone posted ages ago showing Landis and Tyler photoshopped into a famous painting where one is behind the counter and the other sitting on a barstool?

Can you please link to the article. I cannot find it on the NY Times Website and I have a TimesSelect membership.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/business/media/11adco.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Duh. That did the complete IDIOTS in the UCI think was gonna happen???

Absolutely unfathomable. And all you morons pontificating about moral rectitude in cycling can turn out the friggin lights when you leave the room. It's a BUSINESS you pinheads.

But perhaps not now. Now it's becoming a footnote to the ashbin of history. All so DocRay can scream 'They're ALL DOPING!!!!'.

>>A public supporter of Mr. Landis, Mr. Eustice says that the real issue scaring sponsors is that the sport of cycling does not manage its public travails well.

“I think the problem is not so much doping,” Mr. Eustice said. “It’s the fact that the people who run cycling let it turn into such a circus. I think cycling is courageous to fight in a clumsy way, but they seem like a sport that no one controls.<<

Correct.

Right. Blame the UCI because riders cheat. I really like to watch super riders take off with 8-10 minutes over everyone else for the sake of business.

Cycling has its ups and downs, always has. It thrived before and during doping, it will long after.

I'm in Italy right now, and I can't even figure out how to get close to the first two stages of the Giro because of the crowds and police blocks. Tour or Flanders had 1,000,000 viewers, Paris-Roubaix had close to that, TDF will still have 1 billion viewers without the super yanks. It's like Indy or Superbowl, except a month long.

These races have been around over 100 years.

Perhaps a certain Lance chamois-sniffing Cat 4 should focus his advice on the great American tours, none of which can seem to keep running more than a few years.
Perhaps Pro cycling should adopt the Us pro-business model of NASCAR? ride around in tiny circles, slow down the field and create false competition for the sake of entertainment and business? Small wonder there is no interest in US business-driven sports outside of the US.

Seriously, no one gives a **** about the US viewing market, they never needed it, they never will.

You don't get it Lancerbator, you never will.

Where's that photo that someone posted ages ago showing Landis and Tyler photoshopped into a famous painting where one is behind the counter and the other sitting on a barstool?

bobkestrut.com

Right. Blame the UCI because riders cheat. I really like to watch super riders take off with 8-10 minutes over everyone else for the sake of business.

Cycling has its ups and downs, always has. It thrived before and during doping, it will long after.

I'm in Italy right now, and I can't even figure out how to get close to the first two stages of the Giro because of the crowds and police blocks. Tour or Flanders had 1,000,000 viewers, Paris-Roubaix had close to that, TDF will still have 1 billion viewers without the super yanks. It's like Indy or Superbowl, except a month long.

These races have been around over 100 years.

Perhaps a certain Lance chamois-sniffing Cat 4 should focus his advice on the great American tours, none of which can seem to keep running more than a few years.
Perhaps Pro cycling should adopt the Us pro-business model of NASCAR? ride around in tiny circles, slow down the field and create false competition for the sake of entertainment and business? Small wonder there is no interest in US business-driven sports outside of the US.

Seriously, no one gives a **** about the US viewing market, they never needed it, they never will.

You don't get it Lancerbator, you never will.

All pro sports are business driven. 'Pro' being short-hand for 'Professional' as in 'How you earn your money'.

The obllivion demonstrated by your posts is utterly cosmic.

http://www.klab.caltech.edu/~ma/Hubble.jpg

I would change my user name to 'Dude Ray'. Dude. And by all means, get us some of what you're smoking. They don't give us urine tests in the USCF races around here.

Hey Dude Ray, why do you hate America so much? You are one nasty Canuck.

http://216.97.102.200/wrestlers/memorabilia/hasbro_mountie.jpg

Right. Blame the UCI because riders cheat. I really like to watch super riders take off with 8-10 minutes over everyone else for the sake of business.

Cycling has its ups and downs, always has. It thrived before and during doping, it will long after.

I'm in Italy right now, and I can't even figure out how to get close to the first two stages of the Giro because of the crowds and police blocks. Tour or Flanders had 1,000,000 viewers, Paris-Roubaix had close to that, TDF will still have 1 billion viewers without the super yanks. It's like Indy or Superbowl, except a month long.

These races have been around over 100 years.

Perhaps a certain Lance chamois-sniffing Cat 4 should focus his advice on the great American tours, none of which can seem to keep running more than a few years.
Perhaps Pro cycling should adopt the Us pro-business model of NASCAR? ride around in tiny circles, slow down the field and create false competition for the sake of entertainment and business? Small wonder there is no interest in US business-driven sports outside of the US.

Seriously, no one gives a **** about the US viewing market, they never needed it, they never will.

You don't get it Lancerbator, you never will.

Read the Article. The World wide audience is slumping:

Rhonde Van Vlaanderen in Belgium, attendence off 91%, as well as attendence being off in other european races;

The almost 100 year old Championship of Zurich dead;

World wide television coverage down 40%;

Spain and Italy dropping live TV coverage of races.

This is not just an American problem.

And of course cycling will survive, but it's at risk of doing so with less money and less exposure for some time to come if they don't get their act together.

Read the Article. The World wide audience is slumping:

Rhonde Van Vlaanderen in Belgium, attendence off 91%, as well as attendence being off in other european races;

The almost 100 year old Championship of Zurich dead;

World wide television coverage down 40%;

Spain and Italy dropping live TV coverage of races.

This is not just an American problem.

And of course cycling will survive, but it's at risk of doing so with less money and less exposure for some time to come if they don't get their act together.

i find it VERY hard to believe that the Ronde (no h) lost that many viewers. I'll ask a friend who was there, and has been to many editions over the years.

if it was lower, that could easily be explained by the fact that it was on Easter sunday, and the weather was amazing, so people did something else. regardless, a 90% drop doesn't sound right. they had 15,000 people ride the tourist version of the ronde this year, an all time high.

Right. Blame the UCI because riders cheat. I really like to watch super riders take off with 8-10 minutes over everyone else for the sake of business.



I do blame the UCI and WADA to a great extent. The poor handling of the drug issue is as much to blame for all of this as the cheats. If you think that the governing bodies are doing a good job and handling this properly then you are on some drugs yourself.

i find it VERY hard to believe that the Ronde (no h) lost that many viewers. I'll ask a friend who was there, and has been to many editions over the years.

if it was lower, that could easily be explained by the fact that it was on Easter sunday, and the weather was amazing, so people did something else. regardless, a 90% drop doesn't sound right. they had 15,000 people ride the tourist version of the ronde this year, an all time high.

that statistic did seem rather amazing, and I kinda thought there might be more to it, like how it fell on the calender, but the general trend is not good.

I do blame the UCI and WADA to a great extent. The poor handling of the drug issue is as much to blame for all of this as the cheats. If you think that the governing bodies are doing a good job and handling this properly then you are on some drugs yourself.

Correct.

These races have been around over 100 years.

performance enhancing drugs, in some form, have been around much longer than that. and they were an open part of early competitive cycling.

i'm not sure what can or should be done to "clean up" cycling. but the notion that there was a time when no one doped is naive. it just wasn't considered cheating at the time.

Seriously, no one gives a **** about the US viewing market, they never needed it, they never will.



Yeah, there is some real Canadian business wisdom, ignore US markets.

Yeah, there is some real Canadian business wisdom, ignore US markets.

Is this an oxymoron?

Yeah, there is some real Canadian business wisdom, ignore US markets.

Is this an oxymoron?

definition of a Canadian business plan: 6 newfies with baseball bats and a box of black horse

Oh my. You best go back to the T&P avatar, DocRay, it's starting to sound like that whole invade Canada thing is rearing its ugly head again! :eek:

performance enhancing drugs, in some form, have been around much longer than that. and they were an open part of early competitive cycling.

i'm not sure what can or should be done to "clean up" cycling. but the notion that there was a time when no one doped is naive. it just wasn't considered cheating at the time.

But only in the last 20 years or so have they really been performance enhancing. I'd take my chance in a multi day stage race against a field wired on amphetimines and cognac.

Racing against a field laced with EPO would be an entirely different story.

Meh, it doesn't really matter to me if sponsors pull out. If there is less money in the sport, then there will be less reason to use drugs to do well in it. It's not like the major races are going away, and I couldn't care less who actually races in them.

Meh, it doesn't really matter to me if sponsors pull out. If there is less money in the sport, then there will be less reason to use drugs to do well in it. It's not like the major races are going away, and I couldn't care less who actually races in them.

But don't you care about whether you get to see them on Television?

Why would anybody invade Canada?

Read the Article. The World wide audience is slumping:

Rhonde Van Vlaanderen in Belgium, attendence off 91%, as well as attendence being off in other european races;

The almost 100 year old Championship of Zurich dead;

World wide television coverage down 40%;

Spain and Italy dropping live TV coverage of races.

This is not just an American problem.

And of course cycling will survive, but it's at risk of doing so with less money and less exposure for some time to come if they don't get their act together.

Is it possible this actually means that attendance was only 91% of whatever the baseline is (prior year I assume), and therefore "off" 9%? I find it difficult to believe that only 9% as many people attended flanders as did the prior year. I would speculate that even T-of-Georgia didnt lose that much from the years LA did it to this year.

Why would anybody invade Canada?

Why indeed, Dr. StrangePedal?

Why would anybody invade Canada?

Nanaimo bars?

But don't you care about whether you get to see them on Television?

I don't get Vs. I'd rather read about it :)

I don't get Vs. I'd rather read about it :)

You poor, deprived bike weenie.

One weekend of Phil, Paul and Bobke @ Tour of Flanders piped into your livingroom would change that silly notion. Trust me.

You poor, deprived bike weenie.

One weekend of Phil, Paul and Bobke @ Tour of Flanders piped into your livingroom would change that silly notion. Trust me.

incorrect. one weekend with those 3 piped into my living room would lead me to board the next plane to belgium, so i could listen to michel wuyts and jose de cauwer.

we should just go to a "out of sight, out of mind" philosophy and not test the riders. lol

A few weeks ago my boys Bores and Berntien on 670 the score (chicago) were discussing the way in which doping killed track and field and started to ponder if the same would happen to baseball. I thought a more appropriate question was if doping is going to kill the already fragile world (in America at least) world of cycling.

It's disturbing to say the least.

Why would anybody invade Canada?

well duh, our weed is waaayyy better.

well duh, our weed is waaayyy better.

You have me there. Don't bogart that joint eh?

Meh, it doesn't really matter to me if sponsors pull out. If there is less money in the sport, then there will be less reason to use drugs to do well in it. It's not like the major races are going away, and I couldn't care less who actually races in them.

Some may see it as more reason to do it, to get what little money is still out there.

Meh, it doesn't really matter to me if sponsors pull out. If there is less money in the sport, then there will be less reason to use drugs to do well in it. It's not like the major races are going away, and I couldn't care less who actually races in them.

You think the promoters are doing this 'for the love of the game'? No, they are doing it for the money. The sponsorship dries up so do the races. The TdF is very expensive to put on and without the millions of Euro's that flow from sponsors there will be no race. Even if the TdF survived many of the important smaller races may not. Losing sponsors is in no way shape or form good for a sport that derives nearly all of it's income from sponsorship.

Why would anybody invade Canada?


Syrup.

Cheap pharmaceuticals, beer, poutine, because we are so damned liberal, still pissed off from when we burned down the whitehouse, to make dams to divert freshwater south….

An oldie but goodie. :)

http://satirewire.com/news/feb02/warship.shtml

An oldie but goodie. :)

http://satirewire.com/news/feb02/warship.shtml

lol.

An oldie but goodie. :)

http://satirewire.com/news/feb02/warship.shtml

:)

Oh we buy ships. They are usually used and require millions of dollars worth of repairs and upgrades. Then they see a few years peacekeeping service (following US ships around) after which they are sunk because it is unethical to sell old warships to the type of nation that might want them.

Another serious thread successfully hijacked into pointless vitriol.

While I can't take all the credit (after all where would we be without Doc Ray) I feel a certain sense of accomplishment.

Isn't Vitriole the Canadian city where Doc Ray resides?

Besides, vitriol is never pointless, as long as it's spiteful.

Where would 99% of threads be without the pointless banter, really?




OP: Looks like sponsors are harder to come by and attendance is down at the races.

Reply #1: Yup, sure is.

Reply #2. No it's not.

End of thread.

Where would 99% of threads be without the pointless banter, really?

You reveal your conservative nature by leaving out that last 1% doctor.

Isn't Vitriole the Canadian city where Doc Ray resides?

Besides, vitriol is never pointless, as long as it's spiteful.


No, vitriole is this wierd sauce made in Kwebeck that we put on our freedom fries.

Always remember, no Canada, no Celine Dion.

well duh, our weed is waaayyy better.

Hey pal, remember, Hawaii is ours, eh.

Always remember, no Canada, no Celine Dion.

No Great White North! :eek:
http://www.sctvguide.ca/programs/images/gwn.jpg

Look at how Unibet.com is getting reamed in the keister and being put on the ProTour Lite schedule. Aside from the doping scandals, that would make me nervous as well. Hadn't anyone thought about that potential conflict before the contracts were signed?

Oh Oh; probably gonna regret saying this, but I really like Canada. People are nice (even to friendly Americans) and the scenery is great. Fantastic seafood on both coasts! But what the heck, I'll even admit that I like France. :eek: