ASO vs. UCI = The end of CSC?
One of the major backers of cycling, U.S. based Computer Sciences Corporation — aka CSC, announced Thursday that it will not renew its sponsorship of Danish-based Team CSC after this season.
In a news release the company didn’t explain why it was dropping out, just that it was doing so after eight seasons of positive experience. There was no mention of the numerous doping scandals of the past few years or the contentious relationship between the sport’s lead promoter, Amaury Sports Organization (ASO), and its governing body, Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).
If CSC’s departure doesn’t wake up the leaders of cycling to get on the same page and work together to save the sport, there might not be a sport to save. Like in NASCAR, the sponsors backroll the teams, so without sponsors there can be no teams.
Despite cycling’s effort to clean up the doping, companies don’t want to have their names associated with renegade outfits, and with ASO and UCI seemingly at war at the top of the sport, sponsors’ names are further sullied. Companies invest $14 million to $15 million a year to be a lead sponsor at the elite level of pro cycling, and with the doping scandals and all the in-fighting, several of them have opted to leave.
In the past seven months, three of cycling’s major sponsors — Discovery Channel, T-Mobile and now CSC — have bailed out of the sport, leaving three of the top teams in cycling without sponsors.
Discovery’s departure led to the folding of the most successful team in cycling history, the team of Lance Armstrong that won seven Tour de France titles with Armstrong and another with Alberto Contador over a nine-year span. The remnants of Discovery – basically director Johan Bruyneel, the staff and eight riders, including Contador and Levi Leipheimer — went over to Astana, which is the focal point of the nasty ASO-UCI rift.
T-Mobile continues on as High Road, which is bankrolled by T-Mobile for this year as a severance package of sorts. That’s how bad T-Mobile wanted out. It’s as if the company said: Here, take our money, but we don’t want our good brand name to be sullied by associating with cycling so you can’t use it anymore; just take our money and don’t bother us anymore.
And now CSC, which had become one of the leaders in the anti-doping movement but was embarrassed by the team director Bjarne Riis’s revelation that he had doped en route to the 1996 Tour de France title while cycling for, you guessed it, T-Mobile.
You could also toss Floyd Landis’ old team in there. Sponsored by the hearing aid company Phonak in 2005-06, the team was going to be sponsored by iShares for the 2007 season. But iShares pulled out after the Landis situation blew up following his win in the ‘06 TdF.
What a mess!
Here’s the CSC News release …
News Release — March 13, 2008
CSC ANNOUNCES IT WILL NOT RENEW PRO CYCLING SPONSORSHIP
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., March 13 — Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC) today announced that the company will not extend its relationship with Riis Cycling or its professional cycling team past the end of the current contract, which expires on Dec. 31, 2008.
CSC indicated the decision reflects a shift in priorities as the company makes new investments to implement a strategic long-term growth plan.
“Our involvement in the sport of cycling has been a positive and productive experience,” said Henrik Bo Pedersen, the CSC executive responsible for overseeing the sponsorship. “We will continue to support the team and exercise our sponsorship rights during the 2008 race season. At the same time, we are committed to helping the team secure a new title sponsor.
“Our company and employees have enjoyed our relationship with the riders, staff and management of Team CSC. We especially wish to thank each member of Riis Cycling for their dedication and commitment to making professional cycling a healthy and safe sport.”
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Dave,
Thank you and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for investing time and effort reporting cycling.
CSC don’t need to mention doping scandals in their announcement. They know that you and your colleagues in the press will do it for them.
Perhaps a key to the solution to cycling’s problems is fewer column inches devoted to forecasting when and how the end will come.
Who won the stage at Paris-Nice today? What did the president of the UCI say in his long interview with EFE? How are preparations coming along for the Tour of Georgia?
We’d like to know.