Free equipment is NOT sponsorship. Getting paid thousands of dollars and signing agreements is sponsorship. My point that was AG2R is that the One of 17 World Tour Teams that used SRAM was paid a lot to do it. Some 4 were paid by Shimano. And 3-4 paid by Campagnolo. That leaves 7 or so that had to choose any free stuff they wanted. They chose Shimano.

You don't have both do you?