JLT Condor team to fold at end of year as sponsorship ends

As a spectator, all you see are a group of brightly coloured riders whizz past at 40kmh.  You'd be hard pushed to make out any branding unless you knew the team.  Unless your man (or woman) is up front, in GC or in a breakaway you will get little TV coverage.

Far better return on investment to sponsor the tour itself (like OVO), or even the dreaded Watchfinder, both of which had a higher profile than any of the 2nd tier team sponsors.

Ironically I was fed AquaBlue posts on facebook, as I 'liked' the ToB.

These days, the likes of Facebook and Google make for a far more efficient and targeted use of advertising budget.  The media model has changed beyond all recognition.

Problem with the UK scene is that it is not big enough to support the size of teams currently in it. There are not enough pro races, or televised racing to justify the budgets required to run a continental squad.

Basically there is a base cost to run a good continental team, and that cost is currently beyond the reasonable sponsorship value the UK scene can provide. 

Unfortunately the sport needs to step back to move forward. Smaller teams (budget), and a clearer development programme that identifies the UK domestic scene as a stepping stone to a pro career, not a pro career in itself.

There are a lot of really good riders in the UK, who could have stepped up (Ian Bibby being a prime example), but haven't done so for whatever reason. When domestic riders are finishing top ten in the TOB, you have to wonder why they are not on better squads. 

One reason for that could be that currently, the UK scene is too nice a proposition. Imagine earning £30k a year to race 30 races a year and rarely travel more than 4 hours to any race. That is a great gig (even if it does rain too much). 

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see any team fold, however right now things are not right, so change can only be a good thing. 

Really is a shame, they've always seemed to be the ideal model of a British racing team below world tour level. Does make you wonder where the next generation of GB riders are going to come from if the teams are all folding, or are they identified early enough that they'll get taken on straight from junior teams and continental teams? 

I get that for bike brands in the uk Brexit is likely making them all a bit nervous about what money will be around in the future, but I'm surprised there aren't more sponsors wanting to step up, especially if you're a fairly large company, the chances are you've got quite a lot of cyclists in the company, and many who would like to cycle, sponsoring a team would probably go a fair way to showing commitment to encouraging it.

The trouble with cycling is that the only revenue coming in to the sport is sponsorship. The teams have to raise this sponsorship money to pay everyone. If races are televised, the teams and the riders get nothing. There is no cut of TV rights. There is also no ticket sales revenue. If teams had names (like in football) then they might be able to establish a brand (like Sky have, quite aside from being the name of the sponsor). If a brand was established, then merchandising product could be sold. But it is a broken model with very little money in it.

Worrying trend.

Does British Cycling ever get involved in supporting riders after a team folds or are riders left to their own devices to find another 'job'? The domestic race scene can't be that great money wise as others have said sponsorship is pretty tough with next to no coverage and prize money just enough to cover the basics IF you are even successful.

Why doesn't the tour of Britain have an advertising caravan like they do in the Tour de France? I'm sure that would raise quite a sum for cycling, seems obvious so why not?

Cycling Weekly had an article about how hard it is for British teams to secure sponsorship. I guess without the exposure on tv or whatever, it’s always going to be tricky to secure the big money. It’s not like football, with seemingly half the population following it.

Sad day for British Cycling. There must be a better way cycling can sustain itself surely?

Maybe we should have been rattling tins for cycling teams along the Tour of Britain route, not Air Ambulance...