This video sums up every problem professional cycling has nowadays...cycling has always been a poor sport with little profit and huge investments...the problem got bigger with that fact that the calendar starts in January and ends in November, racing in all continents, moreover you do not have to pay anything as cycling (at least road cycling) is done on public roads. Teams have to pay a lot of money with little visibility...
Sky only used 0.8% of their total marketing budget to sponsor team sky and their contribution seemed massive. It needs big companies like sky or red bull to get involved in the long haul. For that to happen it needs to be more exciting for neutral watchers of sport. Let's be honest a sprint day at le tour is a waste of 5 hours. Maybe if it became nationalised like the world championships it might be sustainable. Then it would break tradition though. Then cycling fans would buy the national jerseys though and that would be a good source of revenue. Or just leave it how it is, tradition will keep it going 👌🏻
Terry Hudson mountain stages for 80percent of the grand tours followed by monster itt’s and ttt that would increase the drama 👍👍👍 maybe the odd rest day and a sprint stage lol.. I hate the flat sprint stages... the lazy sprinter does sod all all day until the last 500-250 meters 🙈🙈🙈
Yes and no.. Yes. Because as you said bigger companies offer much more sponsor money. Who knows. Maybe one day we will get a "Team Walt Disney" with Mickey Mouse mascot :) No. Because it doesn't fix the core problem. As we already saw in Sky example, sooner or later these sponsors will be out. And when they decide to get out teams will face huge contracts...
@@caglaralaca if there's a team Disney, you know that jersey will become iconic 😆 I agree though it doesn't solve the core problem of sustainability. Maybe it's better for companies directly involved with cycling to compete. Like the big brands sponsor teams but maybe they should become title sponsors. Seems to work for Scott and Trek.
Red Bull never will do that. Look what they already do in cycling, they sponsor the interesting stuff not the boring ones. You can not make road cycling interesting compared to MTB events they are total boring.
@@Vanadium yeah to be fair I completely agree. It's not red bulls market at all. MTB is exciting and get across to a younger audience. Although drinking a few red bulls would help keep people awake for the boring road races 😆. It's more I think a company as big as red bull is needed but I don't think the marketing is worth it for them.
Well.... In Turkey we have a great duo "Berper Ceysal and Sarkem Günlan" Sometimes another great sports journalist joins them (Caner Eler). They are doing a great job!!! Thanks to them my wife started cycling. It seems we are lucky then most countries.... We don't get bored at all..
More US Races/ Coverage. Cameras on every rider with telemetry. With telemetry, you could add wattage primes, speed primes, things like that would be huge. It would be cool to see the live power outputs from sprinters. That would be exciting, also it would a whole new set of records to break.
It needs to be like mario kart. Instead of having sign post races for points you race for powerups: a can of oil, a nurf gun, a handful of thumb tacks, a 20kg lead weight at the top of the hill, red turtle shells?
Criterium stages (maybe 1 per week for a three week tour)! Fence it off and charge spectators for access! Watching something like a Red Hook Crit is a lot more exciting than your typical flat mountain stage, and I think people would be willing to pay to attend. I certainly would. At that point, sharing profits with the teams might start to add up to a little bit more. Every little bit helps.
Yeah I agree, maybe even try to gather enough money to build some dedicated circuit courses with good seating, I think that would make it more fun to watch. Good thing red hook crit popularity is increasing, that might be the future and I would welcome it.
Maybe add live gopro coverage of all riders and have big screens up to show different views from the race. Having two livestreams one with a host for people who haven't watched cycling before that explains and one stream for long time fans.
A crit style racing with tickets - That shouldnt be that hard and fans would love it. The stages could be shorter, but equaly hard if you just find the right course.
They do this in the UK with the Tour Series: a series of city centre crits across the UK. It's gaining in popularity but could do with some bigger names competing
This is kind of like what Red Hook is doing. They’re holding fun, fast crits in downtown urban areas. They get a lot of attention and really make it an exciting experience for the fans.
But the only revenue of Town Crits is I presume the towns paying for holding it. Also how long would it be before up roar but the locals. It would need to be a circuit really?? I always go through the countryside and see hilly fields wasted, turn that into a circuit with grandstands! (Cx style)
A few thoughts: If the sport is depending on broadcast rights long term... Good luck. Broadcast/cable is dying. There's surely an online/streaming audience for cycling but the services won't be willing to pay the same fees as legacy media. How does professional running work? They're another endurance sport that's not as popular as the major ball sports. Seems to be mostly shoe sponsors. Do they have the same issues as pro cycling? Wild idea: Turn it (back) into an individual sport. It's much more dramatic to watch individual stars going head to head.
Interesting video but I completely disagree. The reason keeping funding together for cycling teams is difficult is that pro cycling does not get the viewer interest that other sports do. In this video you mentioned yourself that the market value of TV rights for cycling are nowhere near some other pro sports. Also, cycling sponsorship is debateably a complete waste of money for sponsors. I'm an avid cyclist myself and other than the bike companies, I hardly know what any of the major teams sponsors even produce or do. The bottom line is that cycling does not bring in anywhere near the revenue of other pro sports and therefore no matter how things are arranged it will always be a difficult task to keep a cycling team going.
The average team budget is well below 50 M€. I think all teams would be ver happy with an additional 800 k. Additionally, the tour of Flanders is not independantly owned, but is organised by 'Flanders Classics' who organise multiple races, most of them - usuprisingly - in Flanders.
I think (as mentioned in the video) that a new type of racing league(s) would be a good way to solve the problem. For example crit races and such are shorter more intense races full of action while often a flat TDF stage is boring the first 4 hours and interesting maybe the last 30 min. A more compact action type of sport like cyclocross and MTB, I think would make more TV-revenue and such but I don’t think this should be instead of the current way, more like a parallel experiment. I think this would need some time to grow big and can not be solved over night
You mentioned (if I am correct) that if the TDF gave 15m to the teams it would be a drop in the bucket with 800k going to each team and team budgets being 50m. Sky is the only team with a budget like that and to the pro continental teams it would be huge to receive 800k. You have to start somewhere.
Shark Mentality and?! They are going away, and my point is that the number used in here as a team budget, is for the richest team, not the average, and certainly not for the lower level teams also allowed to enter the races.
Cap the team spending. No unnecessary luxury campervans for top riders.Cap the wages to the riders. If $1m dollars a year isn't enough to pedal a bike, then go do something else. Otherwise it will end like most football clubs with a huge debt it can't repay. Big title sponsors who would get their name in the tour title for the duration of the sponsorship would also work as would each countries health service pledging $1M for each rider that represents their country. For each rider representing their country it motivates 1000 extra people to take up cycling and therefore are not a drain on the countries health service. Promote merchandise for all teams and tours. Include named jersey like in football etc., This is a literally untapped resource.
The biggest hurdle IMO is that you can't charge admission to people who are strewn out over a 200 km course. All the other sports you use as examples are contained within an arena or track where you can easily control and charge live viewers.
Move bike races to car racing tracks then? Or build bike-specific circuits that are longer and with more intentional segments than street crits and have elevated seating.
Not only is the financial model broken so is the fan model. What league would hold the World championships the same time as the Tour of Britain. Would any other sport do this? The master's golf the same time as St. Andrew's, The American open the same time as The French Open? The tour of Italy the same time as the Tour of California! As A fan it's impossible to even follow the race season! Where are they now, Who's in the race, Where do I watch it? The Tour de France web site shows 4 minutes of it's own 4 and a half hour race! I can't buy a team jersey anywhere. It's so difficult to even follow which racers are which during a race. How about names on the jerseys or along the leg of the shorts.
If sponsorship deals are so important, UCI should finally stop scaring potential tech sponsors out with stupid over regulations (bike rules, power meter ban nonsense etc.).
@Robert Trageser History includes even the dark periods of our past. idolizing someone has nothing to do with listening to someone's opinion. Opinion which many reject to listen because they are prejudiced with the person from whom it is coming. It's true that Lance can bring many bad memories but he also brings knowledge and experience. If you ask me, Lance was not the problem but he was the result of an faulty governing system that failed the sport. We can only learn from this old generations, so we don't repeat their mistakes and make the sport better for the future generation. Every opinion counts
@@BG.Gerenski if you choose to engage the opinions of dopers, cheaters and dare i say criminals, feel free. But don't ever ask those of us who have made better life choice then you do the same. Every opinion counts???? Idiocy at its finest.
@@anthonylarson7919 If the opinions and knowledge of criminals didn't count, then tell me why a lot of computer hackers are hired as security experts after being convicted. You sound like an old, privileged white dude that's been handed everything to them and then espouses the values of hard work and being pure.
@@AaronAaronsohn nice try......born and reared homeless on the streets of Detroit. Shot , stabbed and pissed more blood that a platoon. I just despise pussies like Lance that pick on women and old reporters. it was in the end and badass bitch from Detroit that stood up to the pussy.... big ups to Betsey.....but hey man, if you wanna go to bat for dopers, cheats and hackers it's all good.....do your thing
the thing is i love cycling, but watch a 4/5h race is not fun, is a little boring in fact, and for people that go to the streets to see the runners needs to wait a lot of time to see them 5 seconds, in portugal that great thing that happened is the footbal teams invest a lot in cycling, and more people are saw now cycling may the key is bring more footbal to cycling wit big budgets and not the big companies.
It needs to be a little more like F1. UCI new to make a season of grand tours and monuments which travel around the world. They need to take the power back from ASO tbh
The difference with f1 though is there is one race roughly every week/fortnight and it last roughly 2 hours where as a tour event like the tdf lasts for a couple weeks. Also with f1 there is action more or less all race long so it is still exciting for someone who is just channel hopping where as with cycling they will be on the road for upwards of 5 hours with not all that much happening for the bulk of the race
Should make it like f1 so race in different countries and count up places of the gc person and then make a league. Same with the points jersey and kom jersey
The Tour De France has passed it's 100th edition. If the economics of professional cycling did not work then it would never have lasted as long as it has. If you want cycling to become the next F1 or premier league football then maybe you should just watch those sports. I like the stark difference cycling has to other sports. I like being able to stand centimers from the pro's on the road, mingle at the finish line. Do an open TT against pro riders. Buy the same kit. This make the sport great and we should never loose it.
Isn't the invisible elephant in the room that for a corporate entity to become heavily involved with professional road cycling they will have to factor in the possible downside - that another doping scandal could erupt out of nowhere and damage their brand - given that use of PEDs so obviously improves the chances of winning in a way that isn't true in football, tennis or Formula One. It's not like the money isn't out there. This year Ben Ainslie got £110 million of sponsorship for his next America's Cup bid, in a sport much less telegenic than bike road racing.
When Oleg Tinkov was making this kind of comments everyone said he was crazy and talking non sense. No time has proved him he plugged out of the sport on time.
Step 1: Consolidate the important races under a single organization (Say the UCI). The three gand tours, the monuments, the world championships, and maybe another 10 important historical races. How do you do this you ask..... You need a mega billionaire who is a cycling fan to pay off the existing organizers (think ASO, etc) to go away. All race organizers that were bought out would need to sign a non-compete agreement for at least 20 years. Step 2: Give a 3-5 year heads up to all sponsors, teams and riders stating that all existing teams, contracts and race sponsorship commitments will be terminated. All future contracts will be negotiated directly with the New League for the benefit of the New League. Step 3: Create a year long league using the races owned by the Organization, ending with the World Championships. Because this should be the ultimate in cycling, just like it is in every other sport. Different races will favor different types of riders. Points will be earned by individuals and teams. Only the leading point earners will make the playoffs (think the Grand tours). Admittedly the structure of the league and playoffs with the existing important races is the most difficult part of this plan to get just right. Step 4: The league will sell "Team Franchises" for the Top Level (Maybe 15 teams to start). And possibly even a second tier of team franchises (another 15 teams) to allow promotion and relegation. The initial franchise fees for both tiers will go to the billionaire to help him/her recoup his initial investment to buy out the existing race organizers. Franchises will be limited to maybe one per country (possibly two if its a big or important cycling country). Billionaires would pay up for this exclusivity. Step 5: Team Franchises will receive an equal allocation of league revenue from TV rights, merchandise, etc just like in other major sports leagues. Team Franchises would also be able to develop their own sponsorship deals, as long as they are within overall League Rules. Assigning Team Franchises to countries will promote permanent fan support do to national allegiances. This will open the door to major corporations in each country that will want to support the national team (think Olympic sponsorship type money). Step 6: Team Franchises select riders for their teams in a draft, with a salary cap. Clearly the teams would need to have fewer riders than the current system to limit expenses and to reduce the ability of any one team to dominate a race (yes I think 8 or 9 riders per team is rediculous). How about 5 or 6 max. Step 7: Change the nature of the races to make them more fan and TV friendly, and to allow some ability to sell tickets. This would probably require eliminating 4 hour 200KM stages. The grand tours should be shortened as well to maybe a week long at most. Emphasize more criteriums and ITTs, TTTs and pursuit races. Start using specific built "cycling parks" to hold races which would allow the league to charge admission (think cyclocross setups). Mountain stage races should be run without 4 hours of boring riding prior to the climb. Adding go pros to the riders bikes and microphones to allow viewers to experience the race up close would be a great addition. Add the riders name to the back of their jersey so fans can more easily identify them in the peloton. Riders will not be allowed to drop out of a race unless injured. Team points will be based on where all their riders finished. If you have team mates kill themselves setting up a train for their sprinter, the team will be penalized when the lead-out riders drop from 5th to 95th in the last 200M. Definatly eliminate the drafting and sticky bottles that riders use to "get back on" after getting dropped. Mechanicals and crashes are part of racing. Finishing times in bunch sprints can be accurate now with GPS technology. No longer allow the 57th guy to cross the line in a bunch but 7 seconds back to get the "Same Time" as the winner. Same goes for crashes inside the 2KM line. You crash, your out. That's racing. Step 8: All riders will be prohibited from riding in non-league sanctioned races. This should kill any competing race organizer that thinks they can just "re-start" Milan San Remo, etc. under a different legal entity. All teams will be required to ride in all races. This should also add excitement to each race as you won't have big riders avoiding each other by entering different races. Riders that sit out races will not earn points and will not be allowed to ride in the more important races in the playoffs. Emphasize that cycling is a team sport. Only award "Team World Champion" medals. You can also award League Overall MVP, League MV Climber, League MV Sprinter awards to individual riders, but these should be a distant second in importance to the Team Championship. So there you go. That's my two cents worth (maybe a bit more as you can see that I have thought this through quite a bit). Let's all hope that megabillionaires like Mr. Bezos, Mr. Gates, or their friends are listening and are cycling fans.
There's no money, in no small part, because of historic drug use. Sponsors don't trust the sport.....the fans don't either. You reap what you sow. To get to the top people cheat but once they get there the rewards for most are meager. It's a pity because the more I've learnt as a fan the more there is to know, it's a great sport.
I think the cycle is economically normal for corporates; you sponsor to get your name carried as a manner of advertisement, and may cease as soon as you got the message out or reach that targeted segment or simply failed to get the desired effect. In f1 the media coverage is overtly huge due to larger audience so it's not comparable to cycling. Anyway I hope Red Bull / Monster won't come into the picture; they are just not that healthy for us.
Pro cycling has never been stronger as far as I'm concerned. The sport is in great shape with more and more people getting hooked each year. That said, the teams should be getting a slice of the TV rights money, regardless of how much it is. While it's annoying that teams chop and change, the amount of money cyclists spend on their hobby and the demographic of its participants will ensure that there are always companies looking to market themselves to its fans. Unfortunately, it's not a great spectator sport, which isn't going to change. There is nothing that will happen in the first 3 hours of a 5 hour stage race that will captivate the layman, and I think that's fine. Not every sport is as easy to understand as football.
UCI like FIFA have the problem that are central organizations that align rules but does not care about equality in the 'game' pro cyclist as they are sure have diferent skill and talents that has to be paid in for their performances. but 1. what if UCI is the one who set the payments and rewards after every competition, calle it game, race or stage. then all cyclist have the rigths to be handle a stability of work. let them have and Union to protect when they are sick or when they retire. 2. the UCI must let the Peloton have his own organization in the organization, that makes a warranty for the cyclist to stay healty and give it all no matter what. then... What if theres other organization, one who organize similar races make other controls over doping and give stability of work all the seasson, like when in Boxing more than one organization decide to born and make their onw champions, What if this WCA (World Cycling Asociation) makes like tennis a ranking when you can score points and go up and down as a singles and as a team, providing you and your team points that can be cash at the end in prices and oportunities to race in more advanced level races. There is the future and looking for other type of racing, like the hammer series or the japanesse that makes more appealing for the gambling bussines that is another good way to make profits of the sport.
Every year millions of spectators watch cycling next to the road. If with a way they could be charged ( for example with 5 €/person) that would be a significant income for the teams
That's what we love about cycling - its not like all the other sports in that sense. The chaos and unpredictability of the fans is part of the grand tour culture, and I believe people would hate for this to change
@@recoveringmedia unfortunately this difference of cycling in comparison with the other sports seems to be the reason for cycling to be in this situation and this video to be made . I agree that the sport might loose some of its beauty but maybe the choices are limited
Cykling is broken yes.. ! due to doping, noone wants to get their name on some doped fool. And you cant say that they dont make money, several of these riders got their share of income on sponsors and price money to make a good living !
I think the whole concept of cycling is wrong. It's not much of a spectator sport, in my opinion. I think they should race around a track, like cars. It should be just like car racing. They should have qualifying events before the race, to eliminate riders that have no chance of winning. Do we really need hundreds of riders in the Tour de France? All those riders just get in the way of those who are actually trying to compete for the win. Tracks allow spectators to see the entire race, too. The race tracks should be big, though, not like those small cycling tracks they use now. I think they should use the same tracks as the cars use, for example, the track they use for the Le Mans car race. I think many of the car racing tracks are perfectly suited for cycling events.
The overall biggest problem for Pro cycling is that is is not a great spectator sport. Handle this somehow and then it will get more people watching and then money will follow.
Crits and track cycling are more spectator friendly. But even with crits it's hard to tell the dynamics of the pack when you only see them go by once per lap... maybe make sure the courses are pretty small but still bigger than a track, and have elevated seating so you can see more. But then the problem is that it favors sprinters and there's on climbing or descending which sounds kinda boring. Generally I think it's just not a very good spectator sport and there's no way to really make a model that changes that, but crits seem like the best potential still.
After reading the comments, it would seem cycling fans are cheap and won't pay for a ticket. That's too bad because when you want to see your favorite musician or football team play live, you're more than happy to pay for tickets. Why not for cycling? Doesn't make any sense that no one has figured out how to charge for attendance.
Probably because you'll only see them go by for a few seconds, lol. I know I wouldn't pay unless it's a crit and there's elevated seating with a wide view of a large portion of the course. That on the other hand would be interesting,.
My 2 cents...4 hours, is too long for a televised event, as the TDF can be..100 kilometers Tops, and this can be done in a 3 hour window, also..How can you tell who is riding? NAMES need to be on the backs of jerseys, like football, or any other sport..surprised the riders dont do this to promote themselves, and raise profile..NUMBERS, should be permanent as well, similar to how auto racing does it...nothing wrong with NO 1 going to the previous years champ..other numbers, should be permanent, so fans can tell who they are. I am a new rider, not racer, but I have no idea, who even makes the gear(kit). In motocross, another fringe sport..many riders biggest paycheck, is from clothing companys. Just a thought.
Stick a budget cap on every team fuck team boring i mean sky, let all the teams race in the same league and put a tarrif on any manufacturer bringing out new equipment/tech every 6 weeks making just the bikes cost 16,000 gbp each and boom you'll have interesting racing and kit the average cyclist can actually buy and aspire to
It needs more transparency. Sky in particular, regardless of my personal views which I won't share, are perceived as being super shady. Chris Froome, again regardless of whether or not he cheated, needed to be punished for his adverse results. I think the sponsorship model works but cycling is very low on credibility which affects it in two ways. For one no one wants to watch a sport where they can't get excited at incredible individual performances because the first reaction is always "hmm but, is he clean?". There's a weird situation unique to cycling where people only get exciting if a new cyclist is good, but not TOO good. It secondly means sponsors don't want to be associated with it. They either have to be very involved in the team or run the (again not commenting on how clean the sport is in reality but in public perception) sizeable risk their company will be associated with a doping scandal.
come on, cycling is a niche sport even in most of the so-called "cycling countries", and for average Joe there exists just Le Tour (history, hype, holidays) and that's it (not even Giro/Vuelta nor World Championship) - and he may or may not remember the name of the Tour winner for couple of days, but certainly not the team (and there are even no stable team names for the fans to cheer for). And worse, that average Joe does not even understand the subtleties of cycling, peloton dynamics, attacks, breaks, winds, mountains, classifications in stage races... so it ends up like "yeah, that guy won, OK". But this is not enough to bring that average Joe to the TV to watch, and no chance of bringing him physically to watch the race (but he may go to see soccer game from time to time). So it would be very hard to develop the sport of cycling in the eyes of general public to become a phenomenon like soccer, even if everything is done "right" under some genius cycling entrepreneur and "climate is good" (i.e. good general economic conditions). Add fragmentation, ASO mafia holding a firm grip on its golden egg, then politics (UCI) and you have cycling the mainstream media mostly in the form of doping scandals. Here goes your image.
Professional Cycling is at the mercy of Sponsors, very very poor, at very very bad for the sport, and not inviting for future professional cyclist, cycling is not a professional sport.
Maybe it is about time the spectators pay for the privilege of watching the sport. Apparently the Tour de France is the sporting event with the largest crowd attendance but they d not pay for the privilege.
You need to promote a sport big time nobody is doing that for cycling. Track cycling is on a high in GB but no one is promoting it if someone really pushed it it might really take off and bring in people and money.
simple fix, make bike manufactures pay more... they make billions in sales thanks to the entertainment on the roads. if they dont want to pay, use unbranded bikes. adidas etc pay alot for sponsoring football shoes on players etc need to get more brand money into the sport. spectator dont pay to watch the cycling on the roadside, but they pay the byproducts..
Team radio is the worst thing to happen to cycling, it destroys tactics, takes the decisions away from the riders, reduces the success of breakaways. It should be banned.
You dismissed revolution, but in reality cycling is ripe for one. Yes the A.S.O probably wouldn’t willingly just give over it’s races to a central company in charge of all UCI races (as you talked about), but let’s look back to other revolutions, namely the French one? What this established is that there is power in the people. Leaders only have power when the people are behind them. What I am suggesting is that if the ASO lost support in riders, that would be significant enough to at least force the ASO to reform. Always remember that the riders are the breadwinners. No riders, no Tour de France.
look many sports cannot monetize well and cycling is just one of them! Fishing is globally the biggest sport by participaton but the worlds best make little money. Truth is cycling really is not that good to watch on any level and doesn't suit paid seated spectators as well so it is lucky to be doing as well as it is thanks to the famous tours and olympic medals. You just compare it effectively to soccer and tennis and these suit spectators far far more and football and rugby have real teams in ways that tennis teams and cycling teams really don't and team sports get longer term fans like with baseball and american footy also but cycling like running is really an individual sport
cycling is just expensive as hell from what I gather. Why not make everyone race the same £500 bike, rather than letting people spend thousands on a wheel that's 100g lighter. How on earth does running a team cost millions???
The answer is easy :)) Make it more spectacular by adding crazy comentators and when a cyclist cyclist crashes and is full of blood , add special effects from the Gladiator movie :)) Make the Tour more like wrestling !
I don't see it as "broken". It is what it is. Not enough people watch cycling to get money directly from broadcast or tickets. If sponsors won't pay, then cyclists will get paid less and have fewer resources. That's it.
The most stuped and badness promotion in all the sports. If we compare cycling with football , soccer , basketball. The promotion of this 3 sports here in USA. Every single day you have thousends of comercial on tv everyday every minute every mont every year .very where every school every street etc cycling is ded aging giants monopolies like football , soccer, baiseball etc
Personally I blame it all on carbon frame sets. These are nothing more than a large surface area to plaster corporate names on. Go back to skinny tubed steel frames where there is no room for this crass advertising behaviour and the velo world will be happy !?!!
cycling needs better commentators, the same ole boring presenters are just painful to listen to. A lifetime ban for ANY rider caught doping. Get rid of the earpieces and the annoying support cars. Try just pure racing.
This video sums up every problem professional cycling has nowadays...cycling has always been a poor sport with little profit and huge investments...the problem got bigger with that fact that the calendar starts in January and ends in November, racing in all continents, moreover you do not have to pay anything as cycling (at least road cycling) is done on public roads. Teams have to pay a lot of money with little visibility...
I'd say they get huge visibility, the problem is it's not quantifiable, it's hard to tell how many new customers you got through cycling sponsorship
Sky only used 0.8% of their total marketing budget to sponsor team sky and their contribution seemed massive.
It needs big companies like sky or red bull to get involved in the long haul. For that to happen it needs to be more exciting for neutral watchers of sport. Let's be honest a sprint day at le tour is a waste of 5 hours.
Maybe if it became nationalised like the world championships it might be sustainable. Then it would break tradition though. Then cycling fans would buy the national jerseys though and that would be a good source of revenue.
Or just leave it how it is, tradition will keep it going 👌🏻
Terry Hudson mountain stages for 80percent of the grand tours followed by monster itt’s and ttt that would increase the drama 👍👍👍 maybe the odd rest day and a sprint stage lol.. I hate the flat sprint stages... the lazy sprinter does sod all all day until the last 500-250 meters 🙈🙈🙈
Yes and no..
Yes. Because as you said bigger companies offer much more sponsor money. Who knows. Maybe one day we will get a "Team Walt Disney" with Mickey Mouse mascot :)
No. Because it doesn't fix the core problem. As we already saw in Sky example, sooner or later these sponsors will be out. And when they decide to get out teams will face huge contracts...
@@caglaralaca if there's a team Disney, you know that jersey will become iconic 😆
I agree though it doesn't solve the core problem of sustainability. Maybe it's better for companies directly involved with cycling to compete. Like the big brands sponsor teams but maybe they should become title sponsors. Seems to work for Scott and Trek.
Red Bull never will do that. Look what they already do in cycling, they sponsor the interesting stuff not the boring ones. You can not make road cycling interesting compared to MTB events they are total boring.
@@Vanadium yeah to be fair I completely agree. It's not red bulls market at all. MTB is exciting and get across to a younger audience. Although drinking a few red bulls would help keep people awake for the boring road races 😆. It's more I think a company as big as red bull is needed but I don't think the marketing is worth it for them.
TV coverage for pro events is horrible, especially for the USA. Plenty of companies would sponsor coverage for pro tour events on TV in the US.
the tour livestream was blocked in the usa
Shit here in Australia too
Well.... In Turkey we have a great duo "Berper Ceysal and Sarkem Günlan" Sometimes another great sports journalist joins them (Caner Eler). They are doing a great job!!! Thanks to them my wife started cycling.
It seems we are lucky then most countries.... We don't get bored at all..
More US Races/ Coverage. Cameras on every rider with telemetry. With telemetry, you could add wattage primes, speed primes, things like that would be huge. It would be cool to see the live power outputs from sprinters. That would be exciting, also it would a whole new set of records to break.
It needs to be like mario kart. Instead of having sign post races for points you race for powerups: a can of oil, a nurf gun, a handful of thumb tacks, a 20kg lead weight at the top of the hill, red turtle shells?
Criterium stages (maybe 1 per week for a three week tour)! Fence it off and charge spectators for access! Watching something like a Red Hook Crit is a lot more exciting than your typical flat mountain stage, and I think people would be willing to pay to attend. I certainly would. At that point, sharing profits with the teams might start to add up to a little bit more. Every little bit helps.
Yeah I agree, maybe even try to gather enough money to build some dedicated circuit courses with good seating, I think that would make it more fun to watch. Good thing red hook crit popularity is increasing, that might be the future and I would welcome it.
Maybe add live gopro coverage of all riders and have big screens up to show different views from the race. Having two livestreams one with a host for people who haven't watched cycling before that explains and one stream for long time fans.
This channel is great! Been watching for a couple of months now, love the unique content keep it up :)
A crit style racing with tickets - That shouldnt be that hard and fans would love it. The stages could be shorter, but equaly hard if you just find the right course.
To make cycling more interesting is make shorter race and circuit race to make the fans easier to support their team
Criteriums?
They do this in the UK with the Tour Series: a series of city centre crits across the UK. It's gaining in popularity but could do with some bigger names competing
This is kind of like what Red Hook is doing. They’re holding fun, fast crits in downtown urban areas. They get a lot of attention and really make it an exciting experience for the fans.
Yes,,,
Because circuit race or shorter race more cheap to handle and more easy to organize.
And the most important is more fans and spectators
But the only revenue of Town Crits is I presume the towns paying for holding it. Also how long would it be before up roar but the locals. It would need to be a circuit really?? I always go through the countryside and see hilly fields wasted, turn that into a circuit with grandstands! (Cx style)
Great video!!! This explains everything.
Good explanation of the structure.
A few thoughts:
If the sport is depending on broadcast rights long term... Good luck. Broadcast/cable is dying. There's surely an online/streaming audience for cycling but the services won't be willing to pay the same fees as legacy media.
How does professional running work? They're another endurance sport that's not as popular as the major ball sports. Seems to be mostly shoe sponsors. Do they have the same issues as pro cycling?
Wild idea: Turn it (back) into an individual sport. It's much more dramatic to watch individual stars going head to head.
Still, we love Cycling :)
Interesting video but I completely disagree. The reason keeping funding together for cycling teams is difficult is that pro cycling does not get the viewer interest that other sports do. In this video you mentioned yourself that the market value of TV rights for cycling are nowhere near some other pro sports. Also, cycling sponsorship is debateably a complete waste of money for sponsors. I'm an avid cyclist myself and other than the bike companies, I hardly know what any of the major teams sponsors even produce or do. The bottom line is that cycling does not bring in anywhere near the revenue of other pro sports and therefore no matter how things are arranged it will always be a difficult task to keep a cycling team going.
The average team budget is well below 50 M€. I think all teams would be ver happy with an additional 800 k. Additionally, the tour of Flanders is not independantly owned, but is organised by 'Flanders Classics' who organise multiple races, most of them - usuprisingly - in Flanders.
That's what we meant i.e. Flanders Classics is not part of a bigger group or anything
@@CyclingPulse Ok.
Anyway, it doesn't change the point you are making in that part of the video, which remains very true.
some big cycling events exsisted before tv so i dont think they will dissapear now
I think (as mentioned in the video) that a new type of racing league(s) would be a good way to solve the problem. For example crit races and such are shorter more intense races full of action while often a flat TDF stage is boring the first 4 hours and interesting maybe the last 30 min. A more compact action type of sport like cyclocross and MTB, I think would make more TV-revenue and such but I don’t think this should be instead of the current way, more like a parallel experiment. I think this would need some time to grow big and can not be solved over night
They have to race on closed courses that charge for admission--which is obviously not possible for road cycling.
You mentioned (if I am correct) that if the TDF gave 15m to the teams it would be a drop in the bucket with 800k going to each team and team budgets being 50m. Sky is the only team with a budget like that and to the pro continental teams it would be huge to receive 800k. You have to start somewhere.
Shark Mentality and?! They are going away, and my point is that the number used in here as a team budget, is for the richest team, not the average, and certainly not for the lower level teams also allowed to enter the races.
Average of 15 million not 50 😀👍
@@sharkmentality9717 Durianrider broke the news?!
the thing with f1 & soccer, there's a circuit or arena where fans buy thousands worth of tickets to watch which generates more income.
Awesome vid, thank you for the info. 👍
Cap the team spending. No unnecessary luxury campervans for top riders.Cap the wages to the riders. If $1m dollars a year isn't enough to pedal a bike, then go do something else. Otherwise it will end like most football clubs with a huge debt it can't repay. Big title sponsors who would get their name in the tour title for the duration of the sponsorship would also work as would each countries health service pledging $1M for each rider that represents their country. For each rider representing their country it motivates 1000 extra people to take up cycling and therefore are not a drain on the countries health service. Promote merchandise for all teams and tours. Include named jersey like in football etc., This is a literally untapped resource.
The biggest hurdle IMO is that you can't charge admission to people who are strewn out over a 200 km course. All the other sports you use as examples are contained within an arena or track where you can easily control and charge live viewers.
Move bike races to car racing tracks then? Or build bike-specific circuits that are longer and with more intentional segments than street crits and have elevated seating.
Not only is the financial model broken so is the fan model. What league would hold the World championships the same time as the Tour of Britain. Would any other sport do this? The master's golf the same time as St. Andrew's, The American open the same time as The French Open? The tour of Italy the same time as the Tour of California! As A fan it's impossible to even follow the race season! Where are they now, Who's in the race, Where do I watch it? The Tour de France web site shows 4 minutes of it's own 4 and a half hour race! I can't buy a team jersey anywhere. It's so difficult to even follow which racers are which during a race. How about names on the jerseys or along the leg of the shorts.
If sponsorship deals are so important, UCI should finally stop scaring potential tech sponsors out with stupid over regulations (bike rules, power meter ban nonsense etc.).
Lance Armstrong is saying all of this for years now...
@Robert Trageser History includes even the dark periods of our past. idolizing someone has nothing to do with listening to someone's opinion. Opinion which many reject to listen because they are prejudiced with the person from whom it is coming. It's true that Lance can bring many bad memories but he also brings knowledge and experience. If you ask me, Lance was not the problem but he was the result of an faulty governing system that failed the sport. We can only learn from this old generations, so we don't repeat their mistakes and make the sport better for the future generation. Every opinion counts
@@BG.Gerenski if you choose to engage the opinions of dopers, cheaters and dare i say criminals, feel free. But don't ever ask those of us who have made better life choice then you do the same. Every opinion counts???? Idiocy at its finest.
@@anthonylarson7919 If the opinions and knowledge of criminals didn't count, then tell me why a lot of computer hackers are hired as security experts after being convicted. You sound like an old, privileged white dude that's been handed everything to them and then espouses the values of hard work and being pure.
@@AaronAaronsohn nice try......born and reared homeless on the streets of Detroit. Shot , stabbed and pissed more blood that a platoon. I just despise pussies like Lance that pick on women and old reporters. it was in the end and badass bitch from Detroit that stood up to the pussy.... big ups to Betsey.....but hey man, if you wanna go to bat for dopers, cheats and hackers it's all good.....do your thing
Druggie liar
the thing is i love cycling, but watch a 4/5h race is not fun, is a little boring in fact, and for people that go to the streets to see the runners needs to wait a lot of time to see them 5 seconds, in portugal that great thing that happened is the footbal teams invest a lot in cycling, and more people are saw now cycling may the key is bring more footbal to cycling wit big budgets and not the big companies.
It needs to be a little more like F1. UCI new to make a season of grand tours and monuments which travel around the world. They need to take the power back from ASO tbh
The difference with f1 though is there is one race roughly every week/fortnight and it last roughly 2 hours where as a tour event like the tdf lasts for a couple weeks. Also with f1 there is action more or less all race long so it is still exciting for someone who is just channel hopping where as with cycling they will be on the road for upwards of 5 hours with not all that much happening for the bulk of the race
Should make it like f1 so race in different countries and count up places of the gc person and then make a league. Same with the points jersey and kom jersey
Now this is an interesting idea...
Most of the amateur sport branch have the same pro problem.
The Tour De France has passed it's 100th edition. If the economics of professional cycling did not work then it would never have lasted as long as it has. If you want cycling to become the next F1 or premier league football then maybe you should just watch those sports. I like the stark difference cycling has to other sports. I like being able to stand centimers from the pro's on the road, mingle at the finish line. Do an open TT against pro riders. Buy the same kit. This make the sport great and we should never loose it.
Introduce Keirin to the West. Make billions. Problem solved.
Ömer Furtun youve been faster :-D
Solution: gambling.
This doesn't solve anything. Gambling is legal in Europe and America on most (if not all) sports. In Japan on only 4 sports and keirin is one if them.
Do one on cyclo-cross
Isn't the invisible elephant in the room that for a corporate entity to become heavily involved with professional road cycling they will have to factor in the possible downside - that another doping scandal could erupt out of nowhere and damage their brand - given that use of PEDs so obviously improves the chances of winning in a way that isn't true in football, tennis or Formula One. It's not like the money isn't out there. This year Ben Ainslie got £110 million of sponsorship for his next America's Cup bid, in a sport much less telegenic than bike road racing.
When Oleg Tinkov was making this kind of comments everyone said he was crazy and talking non sense. No time has proved him he plugged out of the sport on time.
oleg was too real for the rest to handle
@@krikri6253 he was to loud and every one was critic about him and made fun of what he said. He was right.
@@johnnysikaffy5394 he was tight
Step 1: Consolidate the important races under a single organization (Say the UCI). The three gand tours, the monuments, the world championships, and maybe another 10 important historical races. How do you do this you ask..... You need a mega billionaire who is a cycling fan to pay off the existing organizers (think ASO, etc) to go away. All race organizers that were bought out would need to sign a non-compete agreement for at least 20 years.
Step 2: Give a 3-5 year heads up to all sponsors, teams and riders stating that all existing teams, contracts and race sponsorship commitments will be terminated. All future contracts will be negotiated directly with the New League for the benefit of the New League.
Step 3: Create a year long league using the races owned by the Organization, ending with the World Championships. Because this should be the ultimate in cycling, just like it is in every other sport. Different races will favor different types of riders. Points will be earned by individuals and teams. Only the leading point earners will make the playoffs (think the Grand tours). Admittedly the structure of the league and playoffs with the existing important races is the most difficult part of this plan to get just right.
Step 4: The league will sell "Team Franchises" for the Top Level (Maybe 15 teams to start). And possibly even a second tier of team franchises (another 15 teams) to allow promotion and relegation. The initial franchise fees for both tiers will go to the billionaire to help him/her recoup his initial investment to buy out the existing race organizers. Franchises will be limited to maybe one per country (possibly two if its a big or important cycling country). Billionaires would pay up for this exclusivity.
Step 5: Team Franchises will receive an equal allocation of league revenue from TV rights, merchandise, etc just like in other major sports leagues. Team Franchises would also be able to develop their own sponsorship deals, as long as they are within overall League Rules. Assigning Team Franchises to countries will promote permanent fan support do to national allegiances. This will open the door to major corporations in each country that will want to support the national team (think Olympic sponsorship type money).
Step 6: Team Franchises select riders for their teams in a draft, with a salary cap. Clearly the teams would need to have fewer riders than the current system to limit expenses and to reduce the ability of any one team to dominate a race (yes I think 8 or 9 riders per team is rediculous). How about 5 or 6 max.
Step 7: Change the nature of the races to make them more fan and TV friendly, and to allow some ability to sell tickets. This would probably require eliminating 4 hour 200KM stages. The grand tours should be shortened as well to maybe a week long at most. Emphasize more criteriums and ITTs, TTTs and pursuit races. Start using specific built "cycling parks" to hold races which would allow the league to charge admission (think cyclocross setups). Mountain stage races should be run without 4 hours of boring riding prior to the climb. Adding go pros to the riders bikes and microphones to allow viewers to experience the race up close would be a great addition. Add the riders name to the back of their jersey so fans can more easily identify them in the peloton. Riders will not be allowed to drop out of a race unless injured. Team points will be based on where all their riders finished. If you have team mates kill themselves setting up a train for their sprinter, the team will be penalized when the lead-out riders drop from 5th to 95th in the last 200M. Definatly eliminate the drafting and sticky bottles that riders use to "get back on" after getting dropped. Mechanicals and crashes are part of racing. Finishing times in bunch sprints can be accurate now with GPS technology. No longer allow the 57th guy to cross the line in a bunch but 7 seconds back to get the "Same Time" as the winner. Same goes for crashes inside the 2KM line. You crash, your out. That's racing.
Step 8: All riders will be prohibited from riding in non-league sanctioned races. This should kill any competing race organizer that thinks they can just "re-start" Milan San Remo, etc. under a different legal entity. All teams will be required to ride in all races. This should also add excitement to each race as you won't have big riders avoiding each other by entering different races. Riders that sit out races will not earn points and will not be allowed to ride in the more important races in the playoffs. Emphasize that cycling is a team sport. Only award "Team World Champion" medals. You can also award League Overall MVP, League MV Climber, League MV Sprinter awards to individual riders, but these should be a distant second in importance to the Team Championship.
So there you go. That's my two cents worth (maybe a bit more as you can see that I have thought this through quite a bit). Let's all hope that megabillionaires like Mr. Bezos, Mr. Gates, or their friends are listening and are cycling fans.
There's no money, in no small part, because of historic drug use. Sponsors don't trust the sport.....the fans don't either. You reap what you sow. To get to the top people cheat but once they get there the rewards for most are meager. It's a pity because the more I've learnt as a fan the more there is to know, it's a great sport.
Charge spectators to get onto the big mountain climbs, that would help with revenue.
I’d support a breakaway league in a heartbeat. The TDF is pretty boring now.
Ultimate Cycling Championship?
Cycling Pulse now we’re onto something
Crit racing for the win :)
My situation is even worse, Im sponsoring myself. But Im willing to accept sponsors now, Specialized, ARE YOU LISTENING??
hi can you do a video on the tour of Britain
I think the cycle is economically normal for corporates; you sponsor to get your name carried as a manner of advertisement, and may cease as soon as you got the message out or reach that targeted segment or simply failed to get the desired effect. In f1 the media coverage is overtly huge due to larger audience so it's not comparable to cycling. Anyway I hope Red Bull / Monster won't come into the picture; they are just not that healthy for us.
Pro cycling has never been stronger as far as I'm concerned. The sport is in great shape with more and more people getting hooked each year. That said, the teams should be getting a slice of the TV rights money, regardless of how much it is. While it's annoying that teams chop and change, the amount of money cyclists spend on their hobby and the demographic of its participants will ensure that there are always companies looking to market themselves to its fans.
Unfortunately, it's not a great spectator sport, which isn't going to change. There is nothing that will happen in the first 3 hours of a 5 hour stage race that will captivate the layman, and I think that's fine. Not every sport is as easy to understand as football.
TRACK CYCLING.
Sick Content
Mate, just build shit loads of velodromes, ticketed+televised track cycling all the way!
UCI like FIFA have the problem that are central organizations that align rules but does not care about equality in the 'game'
pro cyclist as they are sure have diferent skill and talents that has to be paid in for their performances.
but
1. what if UCI is the one who set the payments and rewards after every competition, calle it game, race or stage.
then all cyclist have the rigths to be handle a stability of work. let them have and Union to protect when they are sick or when they retire.
2. the UCI must let the Peloton have his own organization in the organization, that makes a warranty for the cyclist to stay healty and give it all no matter what.
then... What if theres other organization, one who organize similar races make other controls over doping and give stability of work all the seasson, like when in Boxing more than one organization decide to born and make their onw champions, What if this WCA (World Cycling Asociation) makes like tennis a ranking when you can score points and go up and down as a singles and as a team, providing you and your team points that can be cash at the end in prices and oportunities to race in more advanced level races.
There is the future and looking for other type of racing, like the hammer series or the japanesse that makes more appealing for the gambling bussines that is another good way to make profits of the sport.
Every year millions of spectators watch cycling next to the road. If with a way they could be charged ( for example with 5 €/person) that would be a significant income for the teams
That's what we love about cycling - its not like all the other sports in that sense. The chaos and unpredictability of the fans is part of the grand tour culture, and I believe people would hate for this to change
@@recoveringmedia unfortunately this difference of cycling in comparison with the other sports seems to be the reason for cycling to be in this situation and this video to be made . I agree that the sport might loose some of its beauty but maybe the choices are limited
How much are people going to pay to watch a peleton go by for 30 seconds an how in the world are you going to charge for access to 200km of roadside?
Cykling is broken yes.. !
due to doping, noone wants to get their name on some doped fool.
And you cant say that they dont make money, several of these riders got their share of income on sponsors and price money to make a good living !
I think the whole concept of cycling is wrong. It's not much of a spectator sport, in my opinion. I think they should race around a track, like cars. It should be just like car racing. They should have qualifying events before the race, to eliminate riders that have no chance of winning. Do we really need hundreds of riders in the Tour de France? All those riders just get in the way of those who are actually trying to compete for the win. Tracks allow spectators to see the entire race, too. The race tracks should be big, though, not like those small cycling tracks they use now. I think they should use the same tracks as the cars use, for example, the track they use for the Le Mans car race. I think many of the car racing tracks are perfectly suited for cycling events.
The overall biggest problem for Pro cycling is that is is not a great spectator sport. Handle this somehow and then it will get more people watching and then money will follow.
Crits and track cycling are more spectator friendly. But even with crits it's hard to tell the dynamics of the pack when you only see them go by once per lap... maybe make sure the courses are pretty small but still bigger than a track, and have elevated seating so you can see more. But then the problem is that it favors sprinters and there's on climbing or descending which sounds kinda boring.
Generally I think it's just not a very good spectator sport and there's no way to really make a model that changes that, but crits seem like the best potential still.
They could allocate one or two spots on the team each race for wealthy amateurs to buy in.
After reading the comments, it would seem cycling fans are cheap and won't pay for a ticket. That's too bad because when you want to see your favorite musician or football team play live, you're more than happy to pay for tickets. Why not for cycling? Doesn't make any sense that no one has figured out how to charge for attendance.
Probably because you'll only see them go by for a few seconds, lol. I know I wouldn't pay unless it's a crit and there's elevated seating with a wide view of a large portion of the course. That on the other hand would be interesting,.
Put the pros race on zwift and charge the stream ... (lol, stupid i know)
lmao
My 2 cents...4 hours, is too long for a televised event, as the TDF can be..100 kilometers Tops, and this can be done in a 3 hour window, also..How can you tell who is riding? NAMES need to be on the backs of jerseys, like football, or any other sport..surprised the riders dont do this to promote themselves, and raise profile..NUMBERS, should be permanent as well, similar to how auto racing does it...nothing wrong with NO 1 going to the previous years champ..other numbers, should be permanent, so fans can tell who they are. I am a new rider, not racer, but I have no idea, who even makes the gear(kit). In motocross, another fringe sport..many riders biggest paycheck, is from clothing companys. Just a thought.
Stick a budget cap on every team fuck team boring i mean sky, let all the teams race in the same league and put a tarrif on any manufacturer bringing out new equipment/tech every 6 weeks making just the bikes cost 16,000 gbp each and boom you'll have interesting racing and kit the average cyclist can actually buy and aspire to
It needs more transparency. Sky in particular, regardless of my personal views which I won't share, are perceived as being super shady. Chris Froome, again regardless of whether or not he cheated, needed to be punished for his adverse results. I think the sponsorship model works but cycling is very low on credibility which affects it in two ways. For one no one wants to watch a sport where they can't get excited at incredible individual performances because the first reaction is always "hmm but, is he clean?". There's a weird situation unique to cycling where people only get exciting if a new cyclist is good, but not TOO good. It secondly means sponsors don't want to be associated with it. They either have to be very involved in the team or run the (again not commenting on how clean the sport is in reality but in public perception) sizeable risk their company will be associated with a doping scandal.
I disagree and you just did share your personal views.
keirin bets!!!
R.I.P. Team Sky 💀
After Team Tinkoff pulled the plug nobody stepped in to take over so the riders and team finished could this happen to Team Sky??
"Why professional cyclign is broken from a non-Belgian perspective"
come on, cycling is a niche sport even in most of the so-called "cycling countries", and for average Joe there exists just Le Tour (history, hype, holidays) and that's it (not even Giro/Vuelta nor World Championship) - and he may or may not remember the name of the Tour winner for couple of days, but certainly not the team (and there are even no stable team names for the fans to cheer for). And worse, that average Joe does not even understand the subtleties of cycling, peloton dynamics, attacks, breaks, winds, mountains, classifications in stage races... so it ends up like "yeah, that guy won, OK". But this is not enough to bring that average Joe to the TV to watch, and no chance of bringing him physically to watch the race (but he may go to see soccer game from time to time). So it would be very hard to develop the sport of cycling in the eyes of general public to become a phenomenon like soccer, even if everything is done "right" under some genius cycling entrepreneur and "climate is good" (i.e. good general economic conditions). Add fragmentation, ASO mafia holding a firm grip on its golden egg, then politics (UCI) and you have cycling the mainstream media mostly in the form of doping scandals. Here goes your image.
Professional Cycling is at the mercy of Sponsors, very very poor, at very very bad for the sport, and not inviting for future professional cyclist, cycling is not a professional sport.
It is what it is.
2 week Giro and Vuelta would allow top cyclists to attend more races.
Just ask floyd landis and lance armstrong !
Maybe it is about time the spectators pay for the privilege of watching the sport. Apparently the Tour de France is the sporting event with the largest crowd attendance but they d not pay for the privilege.
Who's gonna pay to see the riders go by for 10 seconds? It would need to be on a contained circuit, not open roads.
You need to promote a sport big time nobody is doing that for cycling. Track cycling is on a high in GB but no one is promoting it if someone really pushed it it might really take off and bring in people and money.
simple fix, make bike manufactures pay more... they make billions in sales thanks to the entertainment on the roads. if they dont want to pay, use unbranded bikes. adidas etc pay alot for sponsoring football shoes on players etc need to get more brand money into the sport. spectator dont pay to watch the cycling on the roadside, but they pay the byproducts..
Team radio is the worst thing to happen to cycling, it destroys tactics, takes the decisions away from the riders, reduces the success of breakaways. It should be banned.
You dismissed revolution, but in reality cycling is ripe for one. Yes the A.S.O probably wouldn’t willingly just give over it’s races to a central company in charge of all UCI races (as you talked about), but let’s look back to other revolutions, namely the French one? What this established is that there is power in the people. Leaders only have power when the people are behind them. What I am suggesting is that if the ASO lost support in riders, that would be significant enough to at least force the ASO to reform. Always remember that the riders are the breadwinners. No riders, no Tour de France.
Power to the people!
look many sports cannot monetize well and cycling is just one of them! Fishing is globally the biggest sport by participaton but the worlds best make little money. Truth is cycling really is not that good to watch on any level and doesn't suit paid seated spectators as well so it is lucky to be doing as well as it is thanks to the famous tours and olympic medals. You just compare it effectively to soccer and tennis and these suit spectators far far more and football and rugby have real teams in ways that tennis teams and cycling teams really don't and team sports get longer term fans like with baseball and american footy also but cycling like running is really an individual sport
cycling is just expensive as hell from what I gather. Why not make everyone race the same £500 bike, rather than letting people spend thousands on a wheel that's 100g lighter. How on earth does running a team cost millions???
Cycling just didn’t have enough people watching it pity
Get Bernie Ecclestone into sort it before he croaks !
The answer is easy :)) Make it more spectacular by adding crazy comentators and when a cyclist cyclist crashes and is full of blood , add special effects from the Gladiator movie :)) Make the Tour more like wrestling !
I don't see it as "broken". It is what it is. Not enough people watch cycling to get money directly from broadcast or tickets. If sponsors won't pay, then cyclists will get paid less and have fewer resources. That's it.
The bigger the fan base is the bigger the money pot will be. Cycling will never be as big as Football so it will never have enough money.
RUclips is broken
this video needed a warning about how shit it was
MTB!!!
Betting methinks
Like Keirin...
Cycling Pulse Indeed!
Legalized doping and sponsorship from the pharmaceutical companies selling the drugs.
Hahahaha.
Cut the long and tedious transition states, I don't even watch those
The most stuped and badness promotion in all the sports. If we compare cycling with football , soccer , basketball. The promotion of this 3 sports here in USA. Every single day you have thousends of comercial on tv everyday every minute every mont every year .very where every school every street etc cycling is ded aging giants monopolies like football , soccer, baiseball etc
sell pot!
👌
Personally I blame it all on carbon frame sets. These are nothing more than a large surface area to plaster corporate names on. Go back to skinny tubed steel frames where there is no room for this crass advertising behaviour and the velo world will be happy !?!!
cycling needs better commentators, the same ole boring presenters are just painful to listen to. A lifetime ban for ANY rider caught doping. Get rid of the earpieces and the annoying support cars. Try just pure racing.
Yeah stop letting the same person win it year after year Chris Frome