USPS paid what??????
 

From 1998 to 2004 the Postal Service paid about $40 million to sponsor the team for which Armstrong won six of his seven Tour victories. In that same period the USPS paid Armstrong $17 million, according to the filing.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...-enriched?lite

With no judgement on Armstrong, I would think some official would question WTF the USPS was doing spending that amount of money on bicycles.

It might have gone a long way to benefit the taxpayers in another manor.

It seems to me that the signer of some checks needs to be behind bars.

Goddam it.

If he wasn't drugging I'd still have Saturday delivery!

If they're living in a manor, they probably don't really need the help...

Foniks fukd mi agen.

i always wondered why the post office had a sponsorship deal with anything, let alone the top racer at the time

its like being sponsored by the board of education or the FBI, what are they even advertising?

Good point, its not likely their business would increase much from advertising. Maybe it was just a way for the US government to sponsor the team.

The USPS faces lots of competition - UPS, FedEx including FedEx ground, and lots of local carriers. $40 million is really small by comparison to what UPS and FedEx spend in advertising.

Sponsorship isn't cheap especially for something like cycling. Go look at the numbers made by athletes in other big professional sports, their team is effectively their sponsor.

As far as USPS putting their image/name on a cycling team, I have one example for this and it is NASCAR. I believe that is enough said on that.

true, but are you gonna put that letter for grandma in idaho in a ups box or fedex it in an overnight envelope?
usps fills a gap that they dont offer, they have competition for packages sure but not actual mail

pretty sure rex is right, its just like america bumping chests with the rest of the world "whats up? im america and i have the strongest team."

It took me 3 minutes to find the information below: You guys should do some research if you're going to blab about "our tax dollars at work"

NO tax dollars support the Postal Service. The Postal Service is a government entity, but is run more like a private company. A reason for leaving the post office as a government agency is the sanctity of the mail. It is against the law to open first class mail unless you are the addressee or have the permission of the addressee. That means that if I open your card from Grandma and take the $20 bill she sent I face federal charges. Even law enforcement officers have to have a court order to open your mail. Not true with UPS or Fed Ex.

Also is there some point where Lance Armstrong was riding a Kilo TT in the TDF? Otherwise I have trouble understanding the reason of this thread in SSFG lol

+1

i never said anything about taxes, i just think that it was stupid

move to jackass thread?

Advertising boggles my mind. How much extra business do you need to gain to justify spending millions of dollars to gain that business? That's a lot of $10 parcels.

Actually, like a lot of pros, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he used a fixed gear when coming back after the off season. As for sponsorship, I really do not understand how they get their money's worth.

Agreed this has no business in this forum. Still... interesting to discuss.

That said the USPS borrows billions from the federal govt to fund operating deficits with about zero prospect of ever paying it back. They are effectively heavily subsidized by taxpayer $$.

I wonder why that could be...

Whether or not it was in TDF or not, Lance clearly held to a 'can't stop don't want to' attitude regardless of if it pertained to doping, or his sw8 brakeless 'fixie-bike'.

Lance is SSFG

My first thoughts as I read the thread title.

1) Who cares
2) This isn't the professional cycling forum, which sucks anyway
3) Even if it was, who cares

I agree - in another sub-forum. Bikeforums is a huge site.

That's one good reason. Also generally failing to adjust to changing business climate... like the fact that hardly anybody mails anything anymore and increased competition in the profitable package delivery market.

But hey the taxpayers got the tab so what the hell, let's ignore all that AND spend $$$$ on sponsoring professional bike teams for no good reason.

is it too soon to make a joke like... " i can't believe they had the ball to do something like that?!"

It's my understanding that the USPS doesn't really make any money on letters especially in rural areas (they're required to do it by law), and they make pretty much all their money (whether it covers their losses on letter and third rate advertising mailers which they do mostly at a loss) from the shipping of packages and priority mail. That's the stuff they compete against UPS and FedEx on and why they need to advertise. On the other hand, whether it's cost effective to advertise those services mainly in Europe, where the racing takes place is another question. Had Lance not been a lock to win and get their name in the news back here in the US, it might even have been a more questionable decision, so maybe the folks in charge new what he was putting in his body and even gave him free shipping on it. Or maybe not.

Source

I read elsewhere that the pension fund pre-payment requirements are well above what is typically needed, essentially requiring the USPS to pay into their pension fund for people that don't even work there yet. Some of the more conspiracy-minded think this is an intentional effort by the GOP that despises the idea of anything government related providing a service and doing so successfully. I'm not sure if that's the case or not.

Which is not to say that it doesn't face challenges as a result of the internet age and competition from other providers. Personally, I am ok with taxpayers funding a service that, or example, the poor and/or rural citizens of this country would otherwise not get. I don't think it would be cool to tell people in rural areas "tough ****, it's not profitable to mail letters for $.42 for you so you get to pay FedEx $10." But I'm a goddamned liberal, so.

Yeah, that is way more germane.

So basically, Retrogression is keeping USPS in business. :lol:

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...19605618_n.jpg