I had no $idea...
07-20-14, 11:28 AM
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I had no $idea...
How much money it took to sponsor a team, or how much the top riders can make...After hearing that Froome was back home in Monaco, no less, but I guess he can afford it. Funny to see the best bikers can get paid what a mediocre baseball player makes...not fair, but true. From what limited research I have done, I guess there is no salary cap problem, so teams can pay what they want. Hard to believe that the advertising benefits are worth it, but I guess the tv revenues must help, and bicycling is more popular in Europe, so European sponsors are the norm. The riders are wearing the billboards, since there is no stadium. Does anyone know...how do the teams (sponsors) in the TDF get chosen?
07-20-14, 11:34 AM
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There is actually a minimum amount that a rider can be paid. I don't remember the exact number but it is well under $100,000. Teams are picked for the three grand tours based on their pro-tour performance during the season. There are a couple of wild card teams that the tour promoters get to pick.
07-20-14, 12:17 PM
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21 World Tour teams. Top 18 (based on riders' world tour points value, as LB Gary alluded to) get automatic invites/obligations to TdF. The ASO (TdF owners) get to pick 3 wild card teams of their own choosing. Usually, but not always, they're French teams (not surprisingly).
07-20-14, 12:24 PM
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All the revenue from TV goes directly to the Tour promoters. Sponsors make almost no money directly from owning a team. Most have teams as a hobby. That's from an article I read just this morning.
07-20-14, 01:54 PM
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As for if the sponsorship is worth it, for the price of running the team, a sponsor like Garmin, Trek, FDJ, Saxo bank or whoever, gets their logo on French, Spanish, Italian tv all day instead of just 30 second spots, each of which might cost the price of a team bike or more. Then they get themselves on the cover of L'Equipe, La Gazzetta Dello Sport, various cycling magazines on newsstands all over Europe etc, and maybe now and again a bit of mainstream coverage (Le Monde, NY Times, CNN, etc).
07-20-14, 02:38 PM
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Nobody should get into the business of owning a sports team and hope to make money.
As for if the sponsorship is worth it, for the price of running the team, a sponsor like Garmin, Trek, FDJ, Saxo bank or whoever, gets their logo on French, Spanish, Italian tv all day instead of just 30 second spots, each of which might cost the price of a team bike or more. Then they get themselves on the cover of L'Equipe, La Gazzetta Dello Sport, various cycling magazines on newsstands all over Europe etc, and maybe now and again a bit of mainstream coverage (Le Monde, NY Times, CNN, etc).
As for if the sponsorship is worth it, for the price of running the team, a sponsor like Garmin, Trek, FDJ, Saxo bank or whoever, gets their logo on French, Spanish, Italian tv all day instead of just 30 second spots, each of which might cost the price of a team bike or more. Then they get themselves on the cover of L'Equipe, La Gazzetta Dello Sport, various cycling magazines on newsstands all over Europe etc, and maybe now and again a bit of mainstream coverage (Le Monde, NY Times, CNN, etc).
07-20-14, 04:15 PM
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As for the numbers:
the minimum wage for a ProTour rider is around 40,000 euros and for a ProContinental rider - around 30,000 euros (or it was last time I checked). Below that level there's no minimum wage; also neo pros can be paid less in both cases. I remember that once there was a discussion during Volta a Portugal (a very hard race), journos or some fans were talking to the riders and it generally turned out that they can hardly make a living.
Contador's salary is rumoured to be around 4,8 mln euros - but 2 mln are paid by Specialized, the rest by the team.
Froome I don't know, at one point it was believed to be around 2,5 mln. And I think there was time Cav was the 2nd best paid behind Contador.
But such numbers are super rare, I guess it's not uncommon for a very solid rider to be paid around 100.000 (even for a top domestique); and for smaller teams it might be a lot closer to the minimum (I imagine it could've been the case with Euskaltel riders, for example). Not long ago Sagan made 250.000 a year. Actually, the average salary that UCI publishes each year is usually oscillating around 250,000 but everyone says the number is misleading.
Prize money are also kinda silly. The Tour de France winner gets 450,000 (euros) but prizes are always shared inside the team.
the minimum wage for a ProTour rider is around 40,000 euros and for a ProContinental rider - around 30,000 euros (or it was last time I checked). Below that level there's no minimum wage; also neo pros can be paid less in both cases. I remember that once there was a discussion during Volta a Portugal (a very hard race), journos or some fans were talking to the riders and it generally turned out that they can hardly make a living.
Contador's salary is rumoured to be around 4,8 mln euros - but 2 mln are paid by Specialized, the rest by the team.
Froome I don't know, at one point it was believed to be around 2,5 mln. And I think there was time Cav was the 2nd best paid behind Contador.
But such numbers are super rare, I guess it's not uncommon for a very solid rider to be paid around 100.000 (even for a top domestique); and for smaller teams it might be a lot closer to the minimum (I imagine it could've been the case with Euskaltel riders, for example). Not long ago Sagan made 250.000 a year. Actually, the average salary that UCI publishes each year is usually oscillating around 250,000 but everyone says the number is misleading.
Prize money are also kinda silly. The Tour de France winner gets 450,000 (euros) but prizes are always shared inside the team.
07-20-14, 06:49 PM
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Nobody should get into the business of owning a sports team and hope to make money.
As for if the sponsorship is worth it, for the price of running the team, a sponsor like Garmin, Trek, FDJ, Saxo bank or whoever, gets their logo on French, Spanish, Italian tv all day instead of just 30 second spots, each of which might cost the price of a team bike or more. Then they get themselves on the cover of L'Equipe, La Gazzetta Dello Sport, various cycling magazines on newsstands all over Europe etc, and maybe now and again a bit of mainstream coverage (Le Monde, NY Times, CNN, etc).
As for if the sponsorship is worth it, for the price of running the team, a sponsor like Garmin, Trek, FDJ, Saxo bank or whoever, gets their logo on French, Spanish, Italian tv all day instead of just 30 second spots, each of which might cost the price of a team bike or more. Then they get themselves on the cover of L'Equipe, La Gazzetta Dello Sport, various cycling magazines on newsstands all over Europe etc, and maybe now and again a bit of mainstream coverage (Le Monde, NY Times, CNN, etc).
07-20-14, 08:21 PM
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As for the numbers:
the minimum wage for a ProTour rider is around 40,000 euros and for a ProContinental rider - around 30,000 euros (or it was last time I checked). Below that level there's no minimum wage; also neo pros can be paid less in both cases. I remember that once there was a discussion during Volta a Portugal (a very hard race), journos or some fans were talking to the riders and it generally turned out that they can hardly make a living.
Contador's salary is rumoured to be around 4,8 mln euros - but 2 mln are paid by Specialized, the rest by the team.
Froome I don't know, at one point it was believed to be around 2,5 mln. And I think there was time Cav was the 2nd best paid behind Contador.
But such numbers are super rare, I guess it's not uncommon for a very solid rider to be paid around 100.000 (even for a top domestique); and for smaller teams it might be a lot closer to the minimum (I imagine it could've been the case with Euskaltel riders, for example). Not long ago Sagan made 250.000 a year. Actually, the average salary that UCI publishes each year is usually oscillating around 250,000 but everyone says the number is misleading.
Prize money are also kinda silly. The Tour de France winner gets 450,000 (euros) but prizes are always shared inside the team.
the minimum wage for a ProTour rider is around 40,000 euros and for a ProContinental rider - around 30,000 euros (or it was last time I checked). Below that level there's no minimum wage; also neo pros can be paid less in both cases. I remember that once there was a discussion during Volta a Portugal (a very hard race), journos or some fans were talking to the riders and it generally turned out that they can hardly make a living.
Contador's salary is rumoured to be around 4,8 mln euros - but 2 mln are paid by Specialized, the rest by the team.
Froome I don't know, at one point it was believed to be around 2,5 mln. And I think there was time Cav was the 2nd best paid behind Contador.
But such numbers are super rare, I guess it's not uncommon for a very solid rider to be paid around 100.000 (even for a top domestique); and for smaller teams it might be a lot closer to the minimum (I imagine it could've been the case with Euskaltel riders, for example). Not long ago Sagan made 250.000 a year. Actually, the average salary that UCI publishes each year is usually oscillating around 250,000 but everyone says the number is misleading.
Prize money are also kinda silly. The Tour de France winner gets 450,000 (euros) but prizes are always shared inside the team.
07-20-14, 08:50 PM
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I think there was an Italian who retired young from the sport a couple of years ago, a past Grand Tour stage winner, and a name I'd heard of (but honestly can't remember), and he said that his travel and accommodation costs (which he had to pay himself except during a stage race) were so high that he actually lost money in the course of the season.
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