It was certainly not good news that hit the stage on Wednesday morning when the announcement of Team Sky’s stop by the end of 2019 hit the media.
The giant bike-empire that operates with a giant millionbudget, as competitors can only leaning enviously to lose their main sponsor and leaves a cycling team with no name in a year’s time.
this means that potentially about 30 cyclists, sportsdirektører, soigneurs, mechanics and a myriad of other administrative staff without a job in a year’s time, if there does not exist a new navnesponsor to the british large groups.
A day of sorrow, you would think. But anyway, there have also been people who have folded their hands over the prospect that Team Sky’s dominance, especially in the Tour de France, soon to be a thing of the past.
Photo: AP
Cykeleksperten Kim Plesner from Veloropa well understand people’s reaction about the joy of Sky’s dominance seems to disappear, but nonetheless, he, too, is that it is a vexed day for the sport.
– It is never good if a major sponsor leaving the sport. It is here, then, is a unique case. I think many in the field will fret over, that the Cloud is not with longer. They have also been a lever for that other big firms could find their way to the stage, when they can see what the Sky has gotten out of it, he explains.
the Timing of the Skys stop surprises, but the decision on stopped have long been and lurked in the cards, believe Plesner.
– I believe that in sponsorkredse say seven years, so have a sponsorship survived themselves. And the Cloud has been with for nine years now. With all the organizational change that Cloud has been through, where decision-makers, who have been in favour of the cycling team, might have scored less that should have said, and seen in the light of what has happened in the past few seasons (the team has been hit by several scandals including riders with irregular blood values, like both Chris Federer and Bradley Wiggins has been under dopinganklage, ed.), so it was perhaps not unexpected that it would lead to a stop.
But just as with the many contracts, the team has published the last couple of months, so had you still not seen it come right now, so the timing is surprising, on the way to the shocking.
Photo: Ritzau Scanpix
It is a huge hole, Team Sky, leaves. You are talking about, that the team has an annual budget of up to 250-300 million dollars. It can be even very difficult to get into from a new sponsor. the
– I do not think, they find a common sponsor who can put the same amount as the Sky. So it must be an Arabic musician, like we have seen with Manchester City (the football club, owned by the arab wealthy Sheikh Mansour, eds.). They’ll probably be able to find a sponsor, but the likelihood that they find a sponsor, which is the same amount, is equal to zero, believe Plesner.
Now waiting for a season’s worth of uncertainty for the riders. They bought or sold? They must find new pastures, or even set the career. They need to be more selfish, or do they show loyalty?
– What does this mean in the coming season. Both for the team, but especially for the riders on the team?
– It is important that the team quickly finds a new sponsor, or else will riders such as Michal Kwiatkowski and Wout Poels will soon begin to rely more on themselves again, so they are sure a well paid job the season after. They could both be captains on other teams, and they must now, and show up even more forward, so they can get it, they deserve a new place.
– In fact, a possible closure of Team Sky will be worst for the riders in the lower part of the hierarchy. Some of them, like acting as cannon fodder on Team Sky. But also on the other team. Come there is no new sponsor, so the market will therefore be flooded with lots of kvalitetsryttere, and it will be important for the more anonymous riders who can get more difficult to get a contract, explains Mille.
the Team Sky announced themselves, that they want clarification before this summer’s Tour de France in July. It gives the team a-half years of intense sponsor work.
Cycling – 12. dec. 2018 – at. 08:13 Bomb hits the stage: Kæmpesponsor pulls the plug
