Sky going to kill the business?

[cd365]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/ol...eam-sky-but-theyre-going-to-kill-the-business

All because they have a 5 year plan!

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

"If I could tell you who they are about to sign for 2016, you’d realise that they’re going to kill the business."

Lance Armstrong?

No, ME!!

 

[oldroadman]

Tinkov is so amusing, he and his managers make their decisions and then complain when things don't go their way (AC rides Giro, is tired, and CF isn't because he didn't ride Giro). Solution by Tinkov, make all riders ride the same races. Er, no, team management make their decisions based on strategy, not emotion, and if the objective is to win a GT, then Tinkov has done that, risking AC's TdF performance. When it was done before, recovery was much better and faster, and we know why.
Sky had a clear strategy, executed it with riders at high levels, trained well, won race. Not too difficult to understand!

 

[BrumJim]

The fundamental difference between Team Sky and other teams is that they have a long-term project. They’ve got a minimum of a five-year plan, if not even ten years thanks to a commitment from Murdoch’s empire.

So, Oleg Tinkov, the very rich man in charge of the team and who may or may not have an involvement in one of the main sponsors of Tinkov Saxo, is complaining that Sky have a long term commitment from the Murdoch empire? Whatyagoing to do about it, Mr Tinkov?

 

[roadrash]

oleg tinkov is madder than mad jack mcmad, madder than a box of frogs .......oh hang on no hes not hes just pissed off because his team didnt win , move along nothing to see hear

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

The solution to getting something wrong, then, is to get everybody to get it wrong in the same way. A chacun mon gout....

 

[cyberknight]

Or
Sky has bigger pockets and Tinkov is having a strop.
On some points i do agree with Olegs view that the way cycling is sponsored needs to change as liek he said it seems the sport relies on commercial sponsoship and if a big sponsor pulls the plug a team can be left high and dry so revenue from tv rights etc needs to be shred about more.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

oleg tinkov is madder than mad jack mcmad

You call... Oh, sorry.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

As usual, there is some truth amidst the madness. Pro-cycling is not in a good general state. Many top teams are semi-permanently on the edge of falling apart, while some others have have ridiculous budgets. For those who say, 'So what? That's just like football', well, only if you are thinking of football in the UK. German football is not organised this way. They have requirements about junior players and investment in the grassroots, and fan ownership of / shares in clubs. Sports in the UK are oddly extreme in their adherence to the dog-eat-dog world of the 'free market' and business. It doesn't work that way in most US sports either, with draft systems ensuring that the worst teams get the most promising young players to help ensure that there is real competition year-on-year.

I am not saying that either the German soccer model or the US sports model is the best one. But one thing I am certain of is that the current Pro-cycling model is neither sustainable nor does it generate the best, most international, and most competitive system we could have for cycling, and the more it gets like the UK football model, the more problematic this will become. The thing is that where Tinkoff is wrong is that it's not Sky that is the problem per se, it's the apparently unbridgeable divides between the the UCI, the teams, the riders, and the major race organisers.

 

[BrumJim]

F1 (or indeed any motor sport) has the same problem, where the negative effect of not winning any more is greater than the benefit in winning, so the top team has to spend more and more for less and less benefit. In the end, teams either leave the sport, or negotiate a lower cost basis, which tends to be unpopular for the team that is doing well, as it shakes up the parameters and gives another team a chance.

I expect to see the same in cycling.

 

[sleaver]

Maybe he in inhaling steam from the steaks being cooked in the team kitchen and getting high.

They need to get Bora on board as a sponsor

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Maybe he in inhaling steam from the steaks being cooked in the team kitchen and getting high.

They need to get Bora on board as a sponsor

Everytime I see that team name, I just think of George Dubya's failed attempt to 'find' a certain Mr Bin Laden in the Tora Bora Mountains.

 

[ufkacbln]

Two thoughts...

Is this a bad thing in that it will force other sponsors to make longer term commitments?

How do you stop it?
Is there a cap on how much a team can spend possible, can you limit a team's riders, how do you stop a team dominating the races?

 

[Mattonsea]

Mad uncle Oleg is just pissed that the whole Velon project looks like a dead duck.

 

[Slioch]

An interesting viewpoint on why both French and British sports fans have a downer on Team Sky on Spiked magazine. Here.