Long Term Viability of Team Leopard?

[Willy_Voet]

First off, apologies if this has been addressed in another thread, but even if discussed, I think worthy of a specific thread after the Pegasus debacle.

Now that we see Team Leopard's jerseys, what is there to say about the long term vision for the team/management?

Most teams have the sponsor prominently displayed on the jersey as they are paying for publicity. Team Leopard has big blank spots front and back. That's prime real estate and the absence of any brand/logo there strikes me as odd.

What are the long term finances for this team? Does anyone have a firm figure for the team's budget? Besides Trek, who is a major sponsor? Are there shaky finances here?

Who is floating the team until a "real" sponsor worthy of a prominent position on the jersey can be found? The presentation pictures showed Pat McQuaid, riders, management. I didn't see a Giorgio Squinzi or Oleg Tinkov.

 

[Mambo95]

The money is coming from a bloke called Flavio Becca - construction and fast food tycoon and friend of the Schleck family.

 

[theyoungest]

Their Oleg Tinkov is Flavio Becca, or whatever the guy is called. Family friend of the Schlecks, apparently, and filthy rich.

edit: how to say something almost identical at the same time.

 

[Willy_Voet]

filthy rich.

So 20 million euro a year must be no biggie.

But they still must be thinking of something for that conspicuous space. Otherwise, just put a big "Leopard" there, like this:

 

[fatandfast]

not everybody likes loud..the kit is throw back style. Lots of people buy Rapha because of style ..lots of non-racers..which is 98% of the market feel it's silly to pedal w your kids wearing a pro kit..I see these as understated and tasteful. When ParisRoubaix comes those jerseys are going to look really good

 

[Christian]

First off, apologies if this has been addressed in another thread, but even if discussed, I think worthy of a specific thread after the Pegasus debacle.

Now that we see Team Leopard's jerseys, what is there to say about the long term vision for the team/management?

Most teams have the sponsor prominently displayed on the jersey as they are paying for publicity. Team Leopard has big blank spots front and back. That's prime real estate and the absence of any brand/logo there strikes me as odd.

What are the long term finances for this team? Does anyone have a firm figure for the team's budget? Besides Trek, who is a major sponsor? Are there shaky finances here?

Who is floating the team until a "real" sponsor worthy of a prominent position on the jersey can be found? The presentation pictures showed Pat McQuaid, riders, management. I didn't see a Giorgio Squinzi or Oleg Tinkov.

The same question was raised in this article on The Inner Ring and Brian Nygaard himself responded to it saying:

With regards to the "lacking financial transparency", alluding to our team, I'm left a little puzzled and slightly offended. As you know from the Pegasus debaccle, you need to have your stuff in order to be an approved team - even more so to get a ProTeam license. Here you need proper contracts, insurances, bank guarantee etc, ect. This process is run by the UCI, controlled by Ernst&Young and then, the final approval is granted by an Independent License Commission. We have received our license for 4 years, which is the maximum length available. If you have any doubts about the strictness of that process, you're counter-factual.

You asked many questions so I'll try to answer them all as good as I can:

- long term goals:

Nygaard said during the press conference that they "have funding secure in place for four years, but our plans reach much further than that"
The Schlecks also said that right now it would seem logical that they end their careers at Team Leopard-Trek, and that this won't be in four years

- team's budget

Nygaard was asked the same question at the press conference and sait it is not official. I think most teams' budgets are not official. The figure of 20 million € has been mentioned several times on various sites. In any case you can see by their riders and by their equipment that they have a cr*pload of money. Nygaard said the same: "With peanuts you only attract monkeys, and we certainly don't have any of those"

- other sponsors:

Enovos is supposed to be the biggest sponsor after Trek. Here is an extract from their press release:

Enovos is the main provider of natural gas, electricity and services in the Greater Region particularly in Luxemburg, and serves a growing number of international customers ranging from industrial clients to municipal distributors and private households.

(...)

Enovos has already established an attractive customer base in Germany, France, Belgium and Austria and intends to strengthen and develop its presence in the B2B segment of the natural gas and electricity sectors of these countries.

(...)

Amongst many other sporting events, Enovos has been sponsoring cycling events like the "Gala Tour de France" and the "Tour de Luxembourg" for quite some time.

(...)

In addition to its core business, the company is significantly expanding its involvement in the renewable energy sector. The group's annual turnover for 2010 is expected to amount to two billion Euros.

The State of Luxemburg and the state-owned investment company S.N.C.I. own 25.44% and 10.01% of the shares respectively. Other shareholders are: Luxemburg City (8.00%), the world's largest steel supplier ArcelorMittal (23,48%) as well as leading German energy providers like E.ON(10.00%), RWE (18.36%) and the Belgian company Electrabel (4.71%).

- shaky finances:

Not at all. As Pegasus has shown, any team with shaky finances has a really hard time. Nygaard explained the process in the quote I posted above ... if you still believe their finances to be shaky, "you're being counter-factual".

- who is floating the team:

Flavio Becca, a rich Luxembourg businessman who made his fortune in real estate. He is also involved with fast food chain Quick and supermarket chain Auchan. He was sitting in the front row at the event, between Pat McQuaid and Prince Guillaume, future Grand Duc of Luxembourg. That is to say he sits to the left of McQuaid:

 

[Mambo95]

Who's the man on the far left? He looks very excited about the new team.

 

[ultimobici]

Same thing could be said of Slipstream when they started out in Europe, although they didn't go straight in at the top. But nonetheless they only had Chiplolte Restaurants as a minor sponsor with the majority of their budget coming from Doug Ellis. Look where they are today.

 

[Christian]

Who's the man on the far left? He looks very excited about the new team.

I was thinking the same thing, but I have no idea. The one on the far right is Minister of Sports Romain Schneider. Maybe the one on the far left is just a regular guy with the particular misfortune to get seats right next to Pat McQuaid

 

[flicker]

Please, Luxumburg is a banking and financial country, same as the City of London, or the Vatican. Obviously Team Leapold is here for the long run.

 

[roundabout]

As long as Schleck jr cares enough to ride his bike and both are not caught i don't really see any issues with long-term viability

 

[Race Radio]

Fat Pat has given them his blessing. Nothing will go wrong.... unless someone takes his beer, then someone is gonna get hurt

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mcq...ek-as-contador-and-pellizotti-cases-rumble-on

 

[Mambo95]

Fat Pat has given them his blessing. Nothing will go wrong.... unless someone takes his beer, then someone is gonna get hurt

I think the man behind him in the red tie has already taken his beer.

 

[Moondance]

BMC is in the exact same situation... I don't think they've got any sponsors of note outside of their patron Andy Rihs (who has a fair few ducats in the bank) who also owns BMC.

It is a little odd that this Becca fellow doesn't put one of his, several, companies on the jersey as he's pumping a lot of money into the team... But I guess Becca wants to leave that spot open for a potential outside sponsor to come in with an appropriately sized offer for the title sponsor slot, at which point he would wind down his financial contribution.

As posters above have said, the people who run Slipstream did it... Stapleton did it too with High-Road (although he did have a sizable chunk of money to work with from the severance pay T-Mobile had to cough up). I don't doubt that there many more examples of this should you want to dig further.

In short, Leopard looks healthy... Better than healthy even. They'll be here to stay as long as the Schlecks are active.

 

[Christian]

It is a little odd that this Becca fellow doesn't put one of his, several, companies on the jersey as he's pumping a lot of money into the team...

I don't think he owns Quick or Auchan, he seems to only be a shareholder

In short, Leopard looks healthy... Better than healthy even. They'll be here to stay as long as the Schlecks are active.

Yes and then there is another promising rider coming along, junior ITT champion Bob Jungels ... if he and Ben Gastauer (AG2R) can pull something off together they might be able to fill the void. Plus Andy is going to be around for a while I believe ...

 

[Anonymous]

We have received our license for 4 years, which is the maximum length available. If you have any doubts about the strictness of that process, you're counter-factual.

They also issued Radioshack a licence longer than they are likely to exist for. Length of licence means nothing.

I think they will be around for four years, and then quit and loads of riders will be jobless (but the schlecks and fabian will be ok so who cares). I think its unlikely we will see a policy at leopard of developing young riders etc. I think its fairly obvious that this is nothing more than a four year project for the schlecks and cancellara, and after that its done.

 

[no_slipstream]

First thing that stands out is how much the uniform resembles Team Sky, and the lack of sponsor logos.

 

[Ferminal]

They should last quite a while, at least 4-5 years, but you never know what might happen...

 

[Anonymous]

First thing that stands out is how much the uniform resembles Team Sky, and the lack of sponsor logos.

i dont think the kit looks very much like sky at all (the cars do a bit). But the website is unnervingly similar to the sky pre-launch page and since in style. But as I was reminded earlier. Imitation.. Flattery...

 

[Mambo95]

i dont think the kit looks very much like sky at all (the cars do a bit). But the website is unnervingly similar to the sky pre-launch page and since in style. But as I was reminded earlier. Imitation.. Flattery...

The top half looks exactly the same.

Kit: Black with a blue banner. Check

Cars: Flash luxury vehicles. Check

General manager: A small bald headed fellow. Check

Presentation attire: 'Fashionable' neckwear. Check

Philosophy: 'A new approach to cycling'. Check

It's straight out of the Sky playbook (which Nygaard probably wrote).

Now let's see the bus. It's all about the bus.

 

[Anonymous]

Philosophy: 'A new approach to cycling'. Check.

Well its not so much a new approach as REAL CYCLING. Because of course, up to now, all cycling was just pretend

 

[Race Radio]

It is hard not to be concerned that after a year of talking they still do not have a title sponsor. No matter how you spin it that is bad.

I would also be concerned about the management. Certainly Sky has better management and as much money and most would say they underperformed this year.

The thing they have going for them is McQuaid says they are the future of the sport. That he can ignore the ties to Fuentes and the DS with a "Lifetime" ban and declare them this tells me that they will have no troubles this year....and if they do it will be nothing a little "Donation" cannot clear up.

 

[Race Radio]

on a more important note what is that climb on the Leopard website? It almost looks like the Stelvio but from a weird angle.

 

[Christian]

It is hard not to be concerned that after a year of talking they still do not have a title sponsor. No matter how you spin it that is bad.

I guess then we REALLY have to be concerend about Astana and Katusha .... 5 years (something around that) and still no title sponsor

on a more important note what is that climb on the Leopard website? It almost looks like the Stelvio but from a weird angle.

St.Gotthard.

The pic on the lux site is mirrored tho. See http://aukadia.net/alps/pix/sg.jpg

Now let's see the bus. It's all about the bus.

Nygaard at the press conference:

"It's not about having the biggest bus ... which we probably will"

Martin Mortensen on Twitter:

F*ck the new buss are great to be in.

Apparently it's the first bus of this kind that Mercedes has ever made

 

[Race Radio]

I guess then we REALLY have to be concerend about Astana and Katusha .... 5 years (something around that) and still no title sponsor

I did not realize Luxembourg had a back yard filled with oil fields so they could afford fund a team without sponsorship.

The fact is they can't. Unlike Katusha and Astana, Leopard is not funded by a group of Oligarchs whose interest is national pride. Leopard is a business. They want and need a title sponsor.

They have been searching for a title sponsor for 10 months. They thought they had one, Belgacom, who backed out at the last minute.... hence Trek moving up the stack. It does not bode well for the health of the sport with the sports top team cannot find a title sponsor.