Comparing companies sponsoring cycling teams at the end of the last century with the shirts being pedalled around France twenty years later shows how the sport is changing. Ultimately the key to sustainability is to concentrate on cycling as a cultural ‘event’ rather than winners.
The rise of the US and UK teams has not brought the sponsors with it
This year marks 20 years since Lance Armstrong won his first Tour de France*. This marked a seismic shift in the history of the event as US and UK based teams would go on to dominate. However, while these victories increased popularity in the sport in English speaking countries this has not been met with a similar enthusiasm among companies willing to sponsor cycling teams.
*Lance Armstrong would later be stripped of all wins due to doping. As would his countryman, 2006 winner* Floyd Landis.
In 1999 there were two US companies and no UK and twenty years later there were two US companies and one UK. Not a huge return for 13 winners in 20 years. So what happened? Crucially a concentration of talent and a concentration of opportunity to exploit that talent has limited the appeal of the sport to sponsors.
- While there are plenty of avid cycling fans in these countries, the sport gets little media attention outside the Tour de France. What matters for sponsors is to be associated with winners in the biggest event and they know they will struggle to get much traction from success in other races.
- The winning strategy of these teams has been based on the superteam packed with quality riders rather than the traditional set up of one star rider supported by hard working domestiques. With talent concentrated in one team it limits the options for companies wanting to be associated with winners.
Shifting patterns in Europe
The fortunes of French cycling has been in sharp contrast to their English speaking rivals but here sponsorship is about more than just winning. Here the number of French companies sponsoring teams has increased from 1999 (from five to eight).
This shows that while the Tour de France is now a global spectacle it is still France’s race and French companies want to be involved regardless of success on the road. The sport in France has managed to weather the storm of bad publicity caused by various drugs scandals in a way that other countries have not been able to do.
This is most notable in the shift of sponsors from South Europe to Northern Europe. Italy has gone from the home of the cycling sponsorship (around a third of all companies) to only 2 companies. While Spain has gone from five companies in 1999 to none. There is no doubt that bad publicity for the sport has played a role in this shift, but the global financial crisis has hit these countries hard. With households and companies having less to spend there is little incentive or appetite for sponsoring a cycling team.
Opening up new horizons
With limited interest from US companies and traditional leaders reducing the level of investment the future might have looked bleak for cycling. But saviours have emerged in the Middle East and further afield. For example Tour winner Vincente Nibali tried to court pasta maker Barila to sponsor a team in 2014 but ended up with Bahrain.
For the money rich Middle Eastern and Central Asian states cycling sponsorship is part of a growing use of sport in their soft power strategy to spread a positive message of the country – no different to any other sponsor except in what they are selling.
Finally, it is the English speaking countries of South Africa and Australia who are emerging as the new location of sponsors. This is a combination of teams looking to develop local talent on a global scale with sympathetic companies looking to be seen at home as supporters of national teams while also associating with globally important events. The growing international nature of the cycling calendar also offers these companies a second promotional opportunity as the cycling circus once only seen on TV comes to the other side of the world.
The cycling ‘event’ is key to sustainablity
Professional cycling has expanded around the world. While races in the desert or Down Under may not always appeal to those in the heartland of the sport, it is providing a vital sponsorship lifeline as economic hardships constraint opportunities in established cycling countries. Alongside this the Tour de France remains the biggest event of all which is both a curse and a blessing. A singular focus on winning has reduced the potential pool of sponsors in some countries while for others, such as France, the event itself is so culturally important that sponsors will always be interested.
Winning may bring a small number of superteams and super sponsors but the sustainability of cycling relies more on the enduring appeal of the culture and beauty of sport and the ability to transport that around the world.
Sport.dat 