How much do pros get paid (Salary from teams)?

2»

Comments

  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,070
    The minimum wage for a ProTour rider is €30k pa (approx £21k pa at current exchange rates).

    For non-ProTour riders this can be much, much lower.
  • interesting thread. is there no more comprehensive data on wages - as there is with footballers?

    cycling is a "free" event to watch which obviously removes one source of revenue available to other sports. Are there any significant TV revenues flowing to the teams? My impression is sponsorship accounts for almost all their income?

    It does make you think that the average premiership footballer earns £1.1m, and I remember seeing a report by Deloitte I think that reported average wages in the 1st Dvision (old 3rd Division) at about £200k odd ... for complete no-bodies !

    The gap between the very top cyclists and their team mates who are also very near the top of their profession is what stands out in cycling perhaps more so than in other sports?
  • Monty Dog
    Monty Dog Posts: 20,614
    But of course - they get to stay in hotels for 200 days a year so could save loads on accommodation! I don't think anyone becomes a pro rider for the money - and continental team riders earn less - probably nearer 15,000 Euros which these days is subsistence living.
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..
  • don key
    don key Posts: 494
    Tuny Gobb is sponsered by a nappy rash creme company.
  • I personally know a pro tour rider who is earning the equivalent of £600,000, on the other hand I know for a fact that some of the Eastern European riders on Iialian non pro tour teams are earning £300 per month so quite a spread.
  • you left out Motorola, the best ever example of a sports sponsorship. ROI = 6:1
    knedlicky wrote:
    pliptrot wrote:
    In terms of return on investment, advertising by putting your name on a cyclist's back has got to be pretty poor, I think.
    I think the short term rewards of sponsorship, provided the team does well, can be very good, though lot of it comes from the ancillary media coverage rather than the visibility of a rider’s jersey.
    And I think it appeals to the moderately-sized firms with ambition rather than the huge established ones, who don’t need it, unless for tax reasons or to get a foothold in the Europan market. I imagine the sponsorship in the 80s from Japanese firms like Hitachi and Toyota helped them get established in Europe, just by subconscious familiarity with the name.

    One shouldn’t under-estimate the turnover, ambition and advertising success of some companies because they are not household names in the UK. Some sponsor names like Castorama might not mean much in the UK, but in France their sales went right up during sponsorship. Same goes for Gerolsteiner who readily admit their first years were very good for business though now think the peak has been reached. Saeco did exceptionally well a few years ago, extending their business well outside Italy and in the farther past Seat benefited a lot, as did Café de Columbie, helping the whole Colombian coffee sales in Europe. Esta (iced) Tea also did very well in the last 15 years without ever really sponsoring a team but just by being involved in the Giro pink jersey sponsorship.

    I also guess some sponsors don’t expect more business but just want to keep their name in the headlines in the face of increasing competition, e.g. T-Mobile and Credit Agricole.
  • the year Aitor Gonzalez won the Vuelta he was earning 50US thou, from Kelme. And check his palmares, the guy could ride some, even before winning Vuelta GC. Pittance, peanuts...
    I think that might be Rico. I read somewhere he's currently on 30,000EUR, so he's on for a nice pay rise (one way or another)

    I have to admit that I'm stunned that any Pro rider could be on as little as £20K p.a.
    I was expecting at least £30-40k considering the effort needed to do the job and the length of career. the top wages don't surprise me though[/quote]
  • liversedge
    liversedge Posts: 1,003
    My respect for clean riders in the mid to twilight of their careers just went up tenfold. Based upon this information I know that if I was a semi-decent pro-rider I would be doping. It is basic economics.
    --
    Obsessed is just a word elephants use to describe the dedicated. http://markliversedge.blogspot.com
  • Mark Alexander
    Mark Alexander Posts: 2,277
    If the earlier number of £25k is right, then considering the time, effort and commitment put in by the 'also ran' team members this doesn't seem fair considering the short life span of a sportsman. 15,000 euros is not a livable wage in the UK.

    Sport will always have a hierarchy and that's ok.
    http://twitter.com/mgalex
    www.ogmorevalleywheelers.co.uk

    10TT 24:36 25TT: 57:59 50TT: 2:08:11, 100TT: 4:30:05 12hr 204.... unfinished business
  • biondino
    biondino Posts: 5,990
    There's been, what, one doping incident in the Giro so far? I wonder if the Tour will manage to achieve zero? If it does then the upside for the sponsors could be massive - not only a host of articles about how cycling has cleaned up its act, but an implicit association with honesty, honour, and supreme athletic effort (i.e. what the sponsors would hope for in an ideal world).
  • Mark Alexander
    Mark Alexander Posts: 2,277
    I agree with you Biondino but I think that it'll take more than one clean TdF to fix that perception of our sport. Being the non-cyclists 'face' of cycling. it would be a great start.

    Just about the only branch that doesn't have a blackened name is track. That's probably, helped in part to the lack of knowledge by most people.
    http://twitter.com/mgalex
    www.ogmorevalleywheelers.co.uk

    10TT 24:36 25TT: 57:59 50TT: 2:08:11, 100TT: 4:30:05 12hr 204.... unfinished business
  • don key
    don key Posts: 494
    Michael Rasmussen was on 1,590,000 Euros a year when he was dismissed by Rabbobank last year. He has of course just sucessfully sued them for a few Euros for reasons I cant fathom .