How hard and how much money per year

[Beeankey]

Do you think it would take to set up a professional cycling team from scratch?

Discussion with a mate earlier and interested to see what you guys think.

I don't reckon it would be impossible with the right sponsors if you had clear goals to aim for. Money wise would all depend on the riders and wages etc but 8 million I reckon wouldn't be a far away figure.

 

[Risex4]

How hard would depend purely on how lenient your sponsors were I guess; how much they would demand in terms of success and how quickly. If I won the lottery tomorrow, I could start a pro-team. It would just depend on how long I wanted to stick with it before I saw some results against money put it.

I would guess £5m minimum to get yourself onto the WorldTour, but easily 3 times that to be competitive.

 

[iLB]

Have a read of this, http://inrng.com/2012/11/uci-world-tour-licence/ and do a search on that site for more pro team budget info. A fair amount of cash needed and some hoops to jump through as well.

 

[vernon]

How to make a small fortune from professional cycling:

Start with a large fortune and sponsor a team.

 

[slowmotion]

Are drugs allowed in this venture?

 

[Risex4]

Factor it into your P+L. A GT win or two and the allure it may bring. Vs. your sponsor doing one and saying "no thanks". Not that I am going on real life examples or anything.

 

[snorri]

Are drugs allowed in this venture?

Nothing stronger than orange jaffa cakes, and Lidl do them very cheaply.

 

[slowmotion]

Nothing stronger than orange jaffa cakes, and Lidl do them very cheaply.

It's going to be very expensive then...

 

[tyred]

Are drugs allowed in this venture?

Yup. Guinness and Woodbine.

 

[accountantpete]

Here's Sky's accounts for 31/12/11

http://inrng.com/2012/08/team-sky-budget-accounts/

 

[ianrauk]

Here's Sky's accounts for 31/12/11

http://inrng.com/2012/08/team-sky-budget-accounts/

Cheers. That made for interesting reading.

 

[Andrew_P]

Here's Sky's accounts for 31/12/11

http://inrng.com/2012/08/team-sky-budget-accounts/

Really interesting reading, currently looking like cracking value for money and answers the question why Sky have never tried hard to take over the rights to World Tour cycling. They are currently getting one hour slots for the TdF on ITV plus coverage on every channel during the sports news. Add to that the GB cycling deal they are doing pretty good out of the 6 odd million.