The Tour de France "is a bargain for sponsors, courtesy of Lance Armstrong," according to Danielle Rossingh of BLOOMBERG.
The event "could once demand large investments from potential backers." Hilversum, Netherlands-based sports marketing consultant Frank van den Wall Bake said that tainted by doping scandals, "sponsoring a team has become 50 percent cheaper." Van den Wall Bake: "Despite, or perhaps even because of all the doping problems, cycling now offers sponsors more possibilities than ever."
The 101st event was won on Sunday by Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali of the Astana team, which "is bankrolled by the Samruk-Kazyna sovereign wealth fund of Kazakhstan." Van den Wall Bake "was one of the creators of the Rabobank Groep cycling team." The Dutch lender spent $20.2M a year on the sport and "withdrew from cycling in 2012 in the wake of the Armstrong cheating scandal." Deutsche Telekom ended its $18M annual sponsorship of the T-Mobile team in '07, "also because of doping." Repucom Dir Ulrich Lacher said, "Cycling is one of the few platforms that offers consistent free-to-air television coverage across Europe." He added that "sponsoring a Tour de France team may be more interesting for smaller companies." Nibali "is the first Italian to win the Tour de France since Marco Pantani." Nicknamed "The Pirate," the flamboyant Pantani "died of a cocaine overdose in 2004." Lacher said, "It’s very significant for the Italian market to have another winner. The sport needs new, fresh winners who aren’t tainted by past doping issues" (BLOOMBERG, 7/28).
CASHING IN: In a separate piece, Rossingh reported Kazakh Cycling President Kairat Kelimbetov said that the first Tour de France victory for Astana rider Nibali "may boost foreign direct investment in team sponsor Kazakhstan." He said, "For us the win of Vincenzo Nibali is not just a sports result, but also a contribution to the program of bringing foreign direct investment to Kazakhstan." The Central Asian country invests up to $150M a year into its multi-sport team, which "is financially supported by the Samruk-Kazyna sovereign wealth fund of Kazakhstan and includes its cycling Astana Pro Team." Named after the Kazakh capital, the Astana Presidential Club "covers eight sports as well as two individual athletes." Kelimbetov said that Astana’s annual budget for its pro cycling team alone is €15M ($20.2M) (BLOOMBERG, 7/28).
