Re: Team Sky Discussion thread
Quickstep, while not without it's own controversies and drama, aren't on the same level that Sky is on in that regard. I won't go into all the promises that they made (that they didn't keep) to make themselves seem like the saviours of the sport but the attention and feedback that they receive is a result of their own media machine drowning the fans in never ending news about every minute detail of their daily lives.jarvo said:If Quickstep suddenly had a 50m budget, would everyone be up in arms? Or if Total who are taking over naming of Direct Energie suddenly had a 80m budget next year?
I feel this whole debate on budgets and parity seems very much influenced by the fact that people do not like a new team was set up with very deep pockets and have bossed the TdF for the past 5-6 years.
Professional sport is all about the have's and have-nots. Football you have the Real Madrid's, Man City's etc. F1 you have the Mercedes and Ferrari's that outspend their competitors
Having a huge budget does not guarantee success, you have to be a well run organisation who recruit correctly.
Katusha had a very large budget for a few years as did BMC but they did not have the same success as Sky so nobody moaned about their spending
If Sky had a 15-20m budget they could still boss the TdF if they wanted, they could recruit 8 guys whose sole objective of the year was the TdF. Budget does not change Sky's devotion to winning and setting up there whole season around the TdF