Pro Tour Team Budgets - How High is High?

[Suedehead]

Cycle Sport said in an article last summer about the crises in italian cycling that lampre and liquigas together didn't have the budget of sky, katusha or radioshack. No numbers mentioned.
The article went further stating that the nature of the sponsorship (lampre-liguigas) said something about the illness of the sport, i e rich cycling enthusiasts who maybe not looking strictle at the business side of things.
If you add HTC lacking a co-sponsor, leopard a main sponsor, Quickstep saxo europcar milram ctt credit agricole sponsorships troubles etc it appears that the cost is to high whatever the budgets are. But that is maybe another discussion.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I don't believe that Katusha figure for a second. If they had that sort of money they would have Contador, Cavendish and Cancellara on their team, not Rodriguez, Paolini and Pozzato.

Are the other figures in dollars of Euros? If it's Euros, then I'm not buying them. If it's dollars, as I suspect, then maybe there's one team with 20m and two or three more with 15m, but that's it.

The rest is just typical media over-exaggeration.

euros indeed and the 30 million figure came from when they started the team it was all over the news.

 

[**Uru**]

I believe USPS said they were paying $8 Million per year when they decided to drop sponsorship. Lance himself said in 2004 when he was shopping for a new sponsor that you need $12-$15 million to run a ProTour team properly. This is all old news.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Money seems not to be a problem for the Russian team, despite the global economic meltdown. Katusha has an initial budget from its main sponsors of €15 million, or nearly $20 million, and an overall budget of €30 million. That puts it at the head of the field.

The team is part of what is called the Russian Global Cycling Project, which aims to develop the sport in the country. The overall budget will also fund a social project dedicated to schools and young athletesand a planned Tour of Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympics are scheduled.

Of the 27 riders employed by the team, a handful are Italian, Spanish and Belgian. Fourteen are Russians, including eight of nine holdovers from Tinkoff Credit. The squad will be split in two this month, with some participating in the Paris-Nice race that starts Sunday and the rest in the Tirreno-Adriatico race in Italy.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/06/sports/bike.php

 

[roundabout]

Not sure if it's from Madiot himself but the article on the front page says that FDJ budget is 8.7 million euro

 

[Benotti69]

Like I said in the OP, there should have been NO SUPRISE here in the Clinic when it was "revealed" that USPS was spending $6-8mil per year on the USPS Team. That is right in the ballpark of what many experts were guessing here in previous posts...."

There WAS no suprise here in the Clinic. We know $32mil spent over 4 years is no big deal. No citation is needed.

But are you suggesting USPS spent more on doping than the teams they were competing with? If so, citation please.

(USPS DID spend more on wind tunnel tests and state of the art clothes and leading edge (at the time) grouppos and other equipment - that is well documented. Shimano designed the then new Dura Ace shifter to fit Lance's fist btw)

those roids can give lots of wood which need to be beaten so that must have been quite a phallic shape for his fist

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Not sure if it's from Madiot himself but the article on the front page says that FDJ budget is 8.7 million euro

ever wondered why madiot always gets the best and biggest french talents?? despite madiot ****ing them all up because he is the worst sporting director in the world? because of that. he has huge budget and pays young riders lots of money, more than they can make in any other team as neo.