Discovery Team Admits Scandals Hurt In Effort To Find Sponsors
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Armstrong Says Scandals Hurt
Chances Of Team Signing Sponsors |
In announcing the disbanding of Tailwind Sports’ Discovery Channel cycling team on Friday, team co-Owner Lance Armstrong and GM Bill Stapleton said that they were “‘90[%] there’ to securing a new sponsorship deal, but that the upheavals in the sport ultimately were too much to overcome,” according to Wyatt & Austen of the N.Y. TIMES. The team was looking for a three-year commitment for $15M a year, but Stapleton said, “We finally concluded that we couldn’t in good conscience make a recommendation to a company to spend the sort of money that is necessary.” Armstrong: “There are too many questions in the sport.” Wyatt & Austen noted no Discovery team rider has failed a drug test, but the team “was not able to avoid the suspicions of doping.” T-Mobile team GM Bob Stapleton, whose team is maintaining its title sponsorship at a reported $18M a year, noted that companies sponsoring teams in other sports or buying facility naming rights “rarely have the risk that sponsors of cycling teams have because their corporate names are not so closely tied to a team” (N.Y. TIMES, 8/11).
RIDERS ON THE STORM: The FINANCIAL TIMES’ Jennifer Hughes noted cycling teams “have no revenues and are entirely dependent on sponsors.” Tailwind Sports failing to sign a new sponsor is “particularly worrysome since the team brought a ‘star quality’ not often found” in the sport, including ’07 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador and Armstrong. U.S.-based team Slipstream said that potential sponsors are “wary and that serious talks with one had stalled directly as a result of the Tour’s drugs scandals.” Slipstream Dir Jonathan Vaughters said, “For the next couple of years cycling is going to be a slightly smaller sport. Once it becomes healthier, then it can resume growing again in a positive direction” (FINANCIAL TIMES, 8/11).
RIDE ON: Discovery team Dir Johan Bruyneel said Contador “will probably get a better deal” with his new team than he had with Discovery. Meanwhile, George Hincapie is expected to sign with the T-Mobile team (USA TODAY, 8/13).
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