No sponsor, no team

No sponsor, no team 

We're heading into the new decade but cycling teams are still depending on sponsorship. If the sponsor stops then the team often dissapears too. I've wrote down some ideas to give cycling teams more ways to get an income.

TV-Money

I know that cycling teams can't decide themselves about it but maybe it's time that all teams in the World Tour make a statement about this. In many sports teams receive money for TV-broadcasting and maybe it's time that also cycling teams take profit of it.

 

Merchandise

Many football teams gain millions ever year by merchandise alone. I don't expect that cycling teams will earn the same amounts by it but maybe they could focus more on it. Making a nice webshop with a wide range doesn't seem like an impossible thing to create. Some good marketing and good products and the incomes could rise already.

Identity

To make people buying your merchandise, you also need to create a loyal group of fans that are wanting to buy your products. That's why creating your own team identity could be a way to let people get more attracted to your team.

Nowadays a whole team can switch to a completely different impression just by having a new sponsor. Lampre was replaced by the United Arab Emirates and the whole team image changed. A famous footballclub like Real Madrid didn't became a completely different team when they changed sponsors.

Cycling teams that are already using this strategy are Quickstep & Sunweb. Quickstep already often shows themselves as the 'Wolfpack' and Sunweb is already known for years for heir 'vertical lines' for many years, no matter which sponsor they had. 

 

Interaction

Maybe another way to make fans more loyal is by interacting more with them. If you give them more then many of them will give you something or even more back too. What about Q&A's or Give aways or social media for example? For sure it's an investment but it can give problably also an 'return on investment'.

Conclusion

Cycling teams won't earn many millions more with my ideas but maybe it could make them a decent amount of money extra so that they are less depending on sponsoring alone and also have other ways to cover their costs. Sponsors will also be likely to sponsor teams with a big fanbases because they attract more attention by fans too (see Football).