Breaking Away - "Top cycling teams explore creating new competitive league"

[pastronef]

If we are a little creative one could say that 10 of those 20 teams are still around.

Rabobank -> Jumbo-Visma
Davitamon Lotto -> Lotto-Dstiny
Illes Baleares -> Movistar
Cofidis
Quick Step
Liquigas -> EF (Liquigas -> Cannondale and Cannondale merged with Garmin)
Lampre -> UAE
Bouygues Telecom -> Total Energies
FDJ

we could add Chazal-Casino-AG2R and Arkea (Bretagne in 2005)
also Liberty Seguros became Astana in 2006

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

we could add Chazal-Casino-AG2R and Arkea (Bretagne in 2005)
also Liberty Seguros became Astana in 2006

The two French teams weren’t Pro Tour teams in 2005.
Liberty Seguros -> Astana i forgot about.

 

[scribers]

This is an ideal scenario. It feels like someone else's responsibility to pay the teams, while organizers collect the cash for themselves.

 

[danielovichdk2]

This is an ideal scenario. It feels like someone else's responsibility to pay the teams, while organizers collect the cash for themselves.

That is why you will not see this happening. No organisation will sell their race without being paid in full. And no TV station will pay more due to the poor economy cycling is bringing with it.

It's not football or nfl.

The way TV rights work in football at least is that its a bidding model where TV networks pay a certain price and the money is shared amongst the actual teams. Not an organisation. Not a single person. The teams.

Would ASO give away its golden eggs to increase the teams' value? I doubt it.

Cycling is by no way mature in any business fashion. There is no money in cycling and the organisations around and in it are holding on tightly to what they believe is theirs.

It's not happening.

 

[scribers]

Didn't I read somewhere that the le tour is the 2nd or 3rd most watched sporting event in the world? That's gold that doesn't get shared with the riders.

It's insane to think a team without a title sponsor is nothing more than a liability (contracts)

 

[ManicJack]

Didn't I read somewhere that the le tour is the 2nd or 3rd most watched sporting event in the world?

That's what some claim but only if you consider unique viewers over 21 stages, and then I doubt that is even close to accurate. The most watched stage last year had around 6 million, excluding the US. For instance last year's NFL Superbowl had 115 million.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Didn't I read somewhere that the le tour is the 2nd or 3rd most watched sporting event in the world? That's gold that doesn't get shared with the riders.

Even if that was real eyeballs and not potential audience, it's fantasy numbers.

An IFM/Repucom report is cited which suggests that as much as 57% of the reported audience for 2012 WorldTour races came from news broadcasts while the live audience was as low as 13% of the reported audience (8% watched on highlights shows and the other 22% came across the races in magazine shows, alongside other sports).

link

 

[scribers]

Bruyneel says (yeah yeah I know), that the league will never happen unless Saudi’s buy aso. And Plugge hasn’t invited enough teams to the table so that’s another nonstarter. And said vaughters is leaking all the details to the press because he always leaks. Lol. Omertà never really goes away with these old lions.

 

[pastronef]

Bruyneel says (yeah yeah I know), that the league will never happen unless Saudi’s buy ASO.

and thank god it will never happen. and fck Plugge too, desolé

 

[Wyndbrook]

Bruyneel says (yeah yeah I know), that the league will never happen unless Saudi’s buy aso. And Plugge hasn’t invited enough teams to the table so that’s another nonstarter. And said vaughters is leaking all the details to the press because he always leaks. Lol. Omertà never really goes away with these old lions.

As a former journalist I'm sure Plugge loved a leak or two.

 

[saunaking]

What would you guys watch?
TDF with midlevel teams and pro conti teams where the battle for yellow is guys like G Martin, Gaudau, Mas, Simon Yates, Mike Woods etc
or
Some made up stage race with Vingo, Wout, Pog, Remco...

Honestly I would probably watch the tour

Riders kinda come and go

Same with PR & Flanders... Although I guess there is nothing stopping anyone from paying the towns and closing the roads

 

[ManicJack]

What would you guys watch?

The races themselves rate higher to me than the participants.

 

[fmk_RoI]

And said vaughters is leaking all the details to the press because he always leaks. Lol.

Regardless of JB's axe-grinding, on this he's not wrong. JV has a tendency to blow deals by briefing publicly about them before anything is complete. Look at the Giro revenue-sharing deal he pre-announced when he was head of the AIGCP (as Plugge is today - I wonder if that's coincidence or correlation), shocking not just the other teams but RCS too, and RCS was actually onside at that point. During the last round of breakaways, he was briefing night and day, and tended not to care how accurate his claims were (nor did the credulous hacks repeating what he said without even a cursory attempt to stand-up his claims).

It's all just an ego-trip for him.

 

[Squire]

What would you guys watch?
TDF with midlevel teams and pro conti teams where the battle for yellow is guys like G Martin, Gaudau, Mas, Simon Yates, Mike Woods etc
or
Some made up stage race with Vingo, Wout, Pog, Remco...

Honestly I would probably watch the tour

Riders kinda come and go

Same with PR & Flanders... Although I guess there is nothing stopping anyone from paying the towns and closing the roads

This is the core issue, I think. As opposed to football, where the teams are the big identifying features, in cycling it's the races. In football you don't ask what is your favourite tournament or stadium, but in cycling people usually feel stronger about races than teams or riders. Whoever wins the Tour de France or Paris-Roubaix are at the top of cycling. It doesn't matter if Vingegaard, Pog and Remco are racing the Mickey Mouse Tour of the desert. The new winners of the biggest races will become the new Vingegaard, Pog or Remco in an instant. Hence in the long run it's the organizers who have the power and not the teams or riders. It's the nature of the sport.

 

[Wyndbrook]

This is the core issue, I think. As opposed to football, where the teams are the big identifying features, in cycling it's the races. In football you don't ask what is your favourite tournament or stadium, but in cycling people usually feel stronger about races than teams or riders. Whoever wins the Tour de France or Paris-Roubaix are at the top of cycling. It doesn't matter if Vingegaard, Pog and Remco are racing the Mickey Mouse Tour of the desert. The new winners of the biggest races will become the new Vingegaard, Pog or Remco in an instant. Hence in the long run it's the organizers who have the power and not the teams or riders. It's the nature of the sport.

I see it as like watching the current end of season 'pre arranged races' in Asia.
I dont watch them.

 

[proffate]

Forget FIFA, NBA, etc. Cycling should follow the model of WWE. One organization that signs all the athletes, then schedules tournaments and hand-picks the winners. The Vuelta was just a test run.

 

[memyselfandI]

Big step lately:

Victory For European Super League in E.U. Court Ruling

Plans for a European Super League were boosted after a judge ruled the sport’s governing bodies violated antitrust law.

time.com

Also discussed on Move:

View: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4mEP25ZyGjtmbLjRqJemXv?si=i9LIMaISQPCwBO6OdSIQkQ

 

[Rob5091]

With Lefereve giving his backing to the One League/cycling circus,
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/pa...tep-committed-to-one-cycling-reforms-project/

"monetize different aspects" he says. What though?

I see the world of rugby has taken up the Netflix offer for greatness -
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/jan/22/rugby-union-netflix-series-six-nations-full-contact-f1

 

[Berniece]

They have another year to get more people on board, or at least the UCI. Looking forward to the presentation of what it'll actually be

 

[Rob5091]

They have another year to get more people on board, or at least the UCI. Looking forward to the presentation of what it'll actually be

Without the ASO, it's a dead duck, and I don't think that the ASO want to give up the golden goose of the Tour.

 

[Berniece]

Without the ASO, it's a dead duck, and I don't think that the ASO want to give up the golden goose of the Tour.

Hope they go for it without them then. They might be able to make a competition that’s more interesting to follow. TDF is only 3 weeks a year, if they are able to create something that is interesting from February - September more people might watch and then they don’t need ASO.

You need a lot of marketing and decent tv deals for it though.

 

[Tim Cahill]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1753863403565699377

View: https://twitter.com/ammattipyoraily/status/1753863403565699377

'Investeringsfonds Saoedi-Arabië wil circa 250 miljoen euro in nieuwe wielercompetitie steken'

Het Public Investment Fund (PIF) van Saoedi-Arabië wil een enorm bedrag pompen in een nieuwe wielercompetitie. Dat hebben drie bronnen laten weten aan persbureau Reuters. Het zou gaan om een potentiele investering van circa 250 miljoen euro. Het gerucht ging al langer dat een vermogende...

www.wielerflits.nl

Could all be over soon, they'll have seen an unlikely and emotional Samuel Leroux breakaway win today and be thinking oh no no no we can't be having any more of that.

 

[Berniece]

270 million dollars from SRJ Sports Investments (Saudis), and 8 teams that are currently onboard with the plan.

$270 million from Saudi Arabian investor could drive One Cycling reform project

Reuters says SRJ Sports Investments is in final talks, but only eight teams said to be onboard revolutionary project

www.cyclingnews.com

 

[Netserk]

Some top cycling teams are concerned that the lion's share of profits from the main races, including the Tour de France, go to their organisers and a new league could be a way to recalibrate earnings, sources previously told Reuters.
[...]
The talks do not involve Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO), which controls the Tour de France and La Vuelta, or RCS Sports, which controls the Giro d'Italia, and it's unclear whether either might join in future, the person added.

The sponsorship value of teams have increased quite some over the years, and that is of course in large part thanks to the venue of the main races. To thus say that they don't get 'their share' of profits is to turn a blind eye to the value of their participation.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

In snooker they've recently announced a new Saudi tournament in which they'll have a so called Riyadh golden ball, which will make it possible to make a break of 167. I wonder if they'll do something similar in cycling and introduce a golden Riyadh kilometer during which you can score 167 bonus seconds.