Fearless Greg Lemond said:
Like Hamilton giving his Olympic gold back?
About the brainwave of DW; BC/SKY/Murdock ----> FOX Network, aka the masters of indoctrination, they own the world wide press. Don't understand why an Aussie would sponsor a BC project though, kinda strange.
Murdock Isn't bothered about what nation, media corporations think in terms of continents / global market. The market is everyone.
A question worth pondering is were is this Sky/ BC/ UCI collaboration going?. All team sponsorships run there course..unless the intention is the ownership of the product.
There are soon to be 5 250 metre indoor tracks in the uk.....all to world championship "specification" ( there was a time when world champs were held on tracks of all sizes, indoors and out)..London ,Manchester,Newport, Derby and Edinburgh . Look on a map and see the even spread .
Its a potential "league" sport. For that to succeed heroes, villains, heroins need to be created and become household names. But first ya need the heroes.
Once you've created the product , ( look at event program changes that will have the widest appeal , drop the events that don't... make the events fast paced, glamorous and simple to understand.)...maybe introduce betting, Keirin racing is a gambling sport in Japan that has an audience of gamblers not sports lovers. I've been to a meeting and was astonished..was like going to the horses. Soon as a race was over it was betting slips in the air and off to place the next bet/ collect your winnings.
The heroes , villains and heroins will soon emerge, relationship storeys become publicly gossip , anyone step to far out of line, face don't fit is dispensable.
The road scene , particularly the GT,s and Monuments has a ready audience , a ready Heroes, Villains and Heroins situation, stories galore , intrigue , history and drama ,has attracted major tourism/ business interest as a marketing tool but failed in England to ever grip the public.
To achieve that Sky/BC/ UCI ( the business model) has to think big.
The TDF being the most obvious. The Olympic games also.
This is what it has achieved.
Now quite obviously some will think I'm wearing a tin foil hat here and indeed I might well be.
But the logics there and the fan base is changing rapidly and becoming much broader.
See how most every area of the sport stands to "benefit" from such proposals ?. Its a win, win, all round.
The only loser is the idealist.