Team Sky to end in 2019

rick_chasey

RichN95 wrote:

Timoid. wrote:

I think people will ready way to much into this. After 10 years, the sponsorship deal had run its course and ends once the contract runs out.

I do think they will struggle to fill the sponsorship gap, which means Sky's GT domination is over. The ripple effects will be intriguing.

An interesting ripple effect, if they do fold, will be the impact on the clickbait journalists who have relied so much on them.

There’s a more obvious question of how it impacts rider wages (if it does at all).

craigus89

Has this not been on the cards since the teams beginning? I'm sure I read that they on;y ever intended to sponsor a team for 10 years in Richard Moore's book about Sky written a good few years ago now.

mamil314

Pross wrote:

mamil314 wrote:

Pross wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

philthy3 wrote:

Team Amazon Prime. If they'll pay Clarkson and his cronies stupid amounts, surely they can muster up enough to run a cycling team.

I was genuinely thinking Netflix might be a good fit.

Would Sky want to sell the team off to a rival though?

For money? And you can watch Netflix on Sky, anyways.

How would they make money from it? My use of the word sell is poor, I assume it would just be a case of a rival coming in to take over the licence of the team in return for the publicity they gain - I'm not sure if that is something that can be sold but would think its value would be minimal in terms of the numbers these companies are involved with. It doesn't matter that you can watch Netflix on the Sky platform, they are business rivals - you can watch BT Sport on Sky and Sky Sports on Virgin. More to the point, from a Netflix point of view would they want a rival getting frequently mentioned by people discussing their team e.g. Team Netflix, formerly Team Sky?

It would still be a sale, even if Sky make no money from a deal as they are actual owners. You get it. Netflix or another big and willing sponsor is unlikely, because of what cycling is - a sport with tiny exposure and following compared to others and thus little to gain from financially.

DeVlaeminck

I suppose it depends on the country but cycling has a pretty big following in the UK at least - I sometimes think we understate how popular it is - a sport doesn't get that many BBC SPOTY awards or get knighthoods dished out if it has such a minority following. Look at the crowds that turn out for some races. It's not football of course or anywhere near but I don't see many sports apart from that which have hugely greater exposure.

shirley_basso

They sure do generate a lot of column inches.

apreading

Uber should sponsor them - I hear they have plenty of money and an owner who is into cycling a bit...!

apreading

I would hope that SKY will show some commitment to long term deals the team has done, otherwise I struggle to see how they can find a buyer easily.

itboffin

Might be the right time for Strava and or Zwift to enter the world of pro cycling and not just by sponsoring KOM points.

ddraver

apreading wrote:

Uber should sponsor them - I hear they have plenty of money and an owner who is into cycling a bit...!

I would giggle...

I don't see there's anything too surprising about this. It's what cycling is. Thanks for the fun times Sky, we wish you a good night.

I do wonder if SDB might call it quits after this too, though I suspect he's not the sort of person that could ever put his feet up on the beach...

Some re-distribution of superstars wouldn't hurt either.

lettingthedaysgoby

Given the news today that McLaren are taking on 50% of Bahrain Merida - and becoming title sponsor for them in 2020, could we see other F1 associations?

Redbull springs to mind as an obvious candidate...

poppit

Seeing as Red Bull’s F1 budget is over £300M, sponsoring Sky will be a bargain!

lettingthedaysgoby

poppit wrote:

Seeing as Red Bull’s F1 budget is over £300M, sponsoring Sky will be a bargain!

Redull’s global marketing budget must be insane - just think of all the sporting events you see them at. A world tour team would be a drop in the ocean.

andyrac

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/ ... ss-cycling

A fairly predictable column from those at the Grauniad.....

RichN95.

AndyRAC wrote:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/dec/12/team-sky-legacy-titles-ambition-allegations-coldness-cycling

A fairly predictable column from those at the Grauniad.....

Old man yearns for the good old days that he only ever read about.

andyp

AndyRAC wrote:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/dec/12/team-sky-legacy-titles-ambition-allegations-coldness-cycling

A fairly predictable column from those at the Grauniad.....

Is it really saying anything controversial? I'd say it was very even handed, surprisingly so given Richard Williams' well known views on the team.

awavey

lettingthedaysgoby wrote:

Given the news today that McLaren are taking on 50% of Bahrain Merida - and becoming title sponsor for them in 2020, could we see other F1 associations?

Redbull springs to mind as an obvious candidate...

well Red Bull already sponsor riders in MTB & Cyclo cross, so they tend to to favour the X sport side of sports for the cache of the youth market who drink their product,hence why their F1 drivers tend to be very young, so road cycling doesnt quite fit in that imo.

also its McLaren applied technologies, the same lot who made Cavs bike back in 2011, not the F1 team, now ok they are part of the same group and its about exploiting technology learned from their automotive car and racing programmes, but its not the F1 team, who have their own lack of sponsorship problems to contend with.

slowmart

The Sky team is an attractive commercial proposition, the deal worked commercially for Sky for ten years and no doubt SDB has been busy during the last week sounding out potential partners.

Whilst cycling is a niche sport the profile punches well above its weight and cycling success is pretty much a shoe in. They are on a burning platform to get a deal done which isn’t the best position to negotiate from which will also be a trigger for interest for those that like a bargain.

Just another race for the team , just different to what they’re use to but they operate at their best when they are out of their comfort zone.

rick_chasey

Cycling isn’t a niche sport.

It’s a niche sport where you live.

Matthewfalle

AndyRAC wrote:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/dec/12/team-sky-legacy-titles-ambition-allegations-coldness-cycling

A fairly predictable column from those at the Grauniad.....

i expected more tbh from reading the headline.

its actually really well balanced and a bit fluffy.

Jez mon

Rick Chasey wrote:

Cycling isn’t a niche sport.

It’s a niche sport where you live.

Don't even think it's that much of a niche sport in the UK anymore

Maybe not quite mainstream, but you definately don't get the ood looks you used to when you say you cycle for fun.

RichN95.

Rick Chasey wrote:

Cycling isn’t a niche sport.

It’s a niche sport where you live.

Outside the USA, everything except football is a niche sport.

rick_chasey

RichN95 wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Cycling isn’t a niche sport.

It’s a niche sport where you live.

Outside the USA, everything except football is a niche sport.

No.

Pross

ddraver wrote:

apreading wrote:

Uber should sponsor them - I hear they have plenty of money and an owner who is into cycling a bit...!

I would giggle...

I don't see there's anything too surprising about this. It's what cycling is. Thanks for the fun times Sky, we wish you a good night.

I do wonder if SDB might call it quits after this too, though I suspect he's not the sort of person that could ever put his feet up on the beach...

Some re-distribution of superstars wouldn't hurt either.

Who, at Sky, would you class as a superstar though? Prior to July most people would have classed Geraint as a top domestique. I can only really think of Froome and Kwia who would rank as genuine team leader material.

MissedTheBreak

So how are we thinking they’ll go out....

A clean sweep of GT wins (G @ Giro, Froomedawg @ Tour & Egan @ Vuelta) and Kwia/Moscon cleaning up the Classics, or sod all and the wheels come off!?

Vino'sGhost

lol business as usual but watch out for super domestiques getting their own ideas and legs to showcase themselves.

Even with skys sponsorship gone they still have as much as EF

RichN95.

Pross wrote:

ddraver wrote:

apreading wrote:

Uber should sponsor them - I hear they have plenty of money and an owner who is into cycling a bit...!

I would giggle...

I don't see there's anything too surprising about this. It's what cycling is. Thanks for the fun times Sky, we wish you a good night.

I do wonder if SDB might call it quits after this too, though I suspect he's not the sort of person that could ever put his feet up on the beach...

Some re-distribution of superstars wouldn't hurt either.

Who, at Sky, would you class as a superstar though? Prior to July most people would have classed Geraint as a top domestique. I can only really think of Froome and Kwia who would rank as genuine team leader material.

Of the 2018 roster, only Kwiatkowski had ever been ranked in CQ Rankings Top 50 prior to riding for Sky.

philbar72

from a redistribution of superstars and the levelling of the playing field, its a good thing. I think they got out at the right time. froome and G are the wrong side of 30. they did well. I also think they can get 2/3 grand tours this year in spite of the trauma of losing their title sponsor. the best riders will be fine but will all probably need a wage cut.

amrushton

apreading wrote:

Uber should sponsor them - I hear they have plenty of money and an owner who is into cycling a bit...!

Didnt think the Uber owners were into cycling unless you allude to Armstrong who is just an investor who got lucky. he is only a shareholder tho'

carbonclem

Brian Smith tweeted an article he's written for the Mail where he suggests the end of Sky is a good thing as it may help level the playing field and create smaller lesser funded teams.

I thought he was working on a Chinese WT team that had a bigger budget than Sky?

gweeds

It’s the same logic Vaughters applies.

When sponsors look at Sky and see they’d need £25m+ to get a seat at the GT tables they look elsewhere.

£12-15m with a number of teams at that level equalises things and makes it more appealing overall. Similar concept to a salary cap.