Why is there no American Discovery Team in the 2008 Tour de France?

Detailed explanation

As one of the most successful teams in Tour de France history, the American Discovery Channel Team is disbanding! This is the exact news from the New York Times, "The best team in the history of Tour de France is about to collapse. This once belonged to Armstrong's team, and it was also the team that trained this year's Tour de France champion, but it is plagued by the shadow of doping. The Tour de France has lost its original aura, and now sponsors want to stay away from the sport, and Armstrong’s team can no longer find new sponsors.”

No one doubts that the Discovery Channel team is the leader of the Tour de France and even the Tour de France. One of the most successful and influential teams in the history of cycling, this team, now jointly owned by the American Shunfeng Sports Company and "Car God" Armstrong, has created countless brilliance: Armstrong won seven history-making races here. This year’s Tour de France champion Contador and the third-placed Refimer are both Discovery Channel riders. Last year’s Tour de France champion Landis also fought for the team. In addition to the Tour de France, The team, founded in 1989, has also won one Giro d'Italia, one Vuelta a Espa?a and several U.S. championships.

Bill Stapleton, general manager of Shunfeng Sports, admitted in a statement, "This is a difficult decision (referring to disbanding the team), and making this decision is more difficult than winning the Tour de France. We We have discussed various opportunities with many companies to continue the team, but finding a new sponsorship is the most urgent thing. But in the end, unfortunately, we have no choice but to end all these discussions." Armstrong also issued a statement. , said that it would shift its business focus to other sports areas, "Before you can see us return to cycling, this sport does need to make a lot of improvements under unified standards."

Even "Cycling God" Armstrong doesn't want to get involved in cycling. This shows what kind of existential crisis cycling is facing now.

Cycling faces an existential crisis

Although the focus of the Tour de France this year is anti-doping, from Rasmussen to Vinokurov, from Sinkiewitz who took the initiative to plead guilty to Contador, the new champion who is highly suspected, has been riddled with doping-related scandals from beginning to end in the Tour de France.

Everyone knows the unclear relationship between the Tour de France and doping, but teams like the Swiss Astner team and the French Cofidis team were forced to This is the first time in the history of the Tour de France that a collective withdrawal has occurred. After two German TV stations stopped reporting on the Tour de France midway, traditional sponsors are also considering withdrawing. Trust in the Tour de France has dropped to its lowest point in 104 years. According to a poll last week by Germany's Bild newspaper, as many as 83% of people had hoped that this Tour de France would be stopped immediately.

It is not just the Tour de France that is facing a crisis, the future of cycling as a whole is in jeopardy.

Whether the World Road Cycling Championships to be held in Stuttgart from September 26th to 30th this year can open as scheduled was also a question. In the context of the Olympic Games' focus on "slimming down", cycling may even be expelled from the Olympic Games. An unnamed Olympic Committee member once told the media that due to repeated doping scandals in cycling, "this sport is likely to be excluded from the Olympic Games." Although International Olympic Committee President Rogge subsequently He said that banning bicycles from the Olympic Games is not a solution to the problem, but he still does not rule out the possibility of relatively "clean" sports such as softball, rugby and karate "crowding out" bicycles and entering the Olympic Games.

Sponsors are frustrated

Due to the constant scandals in this year’s Tour de France, heavyweight sponsors of the Tour de France such as Adidas, Audi, T-MOBILE, etc. are considering no longer Sponsor this event.

Adidas immediately announced that it would cease sponsorship of the team after the doping scandal broke out between Deutsche Telekom team driver Sinkiewitz. An Adidas executive revealed: "We have always adopted a very clear attitude towards the issue of doping. We feel very sorry for the incident with Sinkiewicz. We are seriously considering whether to terminate our cooperation with Deutsche Telekom Racing Team early." Adidas is one of the main sponsors of the Deutsche Telekom team. Its withdrawal means that the Deutsche Telekom team will lose nearly one million euros every year.

The sponsors of the French Credit Agricole team and the French Cofidi team have also stated that they will no longer sponsor the Tour de France.

Cofidi's sponsorship contract with the Tour de France expired in 2008, but after the team's Italian driver Moreni was found to have taken doping during the eleventh stage, the Cofidi team withdrew from the race. General Manager Boll said, "This incident has had a very serious impact on the team." The French Caisse de Caissement, which invested up to 21 million euros in the Tour de France, said it would reallocate its investment, and the French pre-show insurance team also claimed that it would After this Tour de France, the company's strategy will be reconsidered.

Rasmussen’s parent team, Rabobank Racing, also claimed that they would consider whether to continue sponsoring the team. “If a major incident occurs, we will reconsider the sponsorship, and Rasmussen The incident is what we call a 'major incident.'" On August 4, team manager Luo Yijie announced his resignation, which was obviously deeply involved in the Rasmussen incident.

The End of the "Golden Age"

From a business perspective, if a sport needs more attention and sponsorship, it needs to have exciting scenes and attract a lot of attention. big star. Sports projects that have a good image and great attention among the public are naturally the first choice for sponsors.

In the past 10 years or so, the Tour de France, as the epitome of cycling and the pinnacle of its development, has produced a series of superstars such as Andurin, Ulrich, Pantani, and Armstrong, as well as numerous athletes capable of carrying cyclists. A classic scene that has entered the history of sports. In 2002, more than 40 TV stations around the world broadcast the Tour de France live, and more than 3,000 reporters covered the Tour de France. This number was the same as that of the World Cup in South Korea and Japan that year. Some heavyweight multinational companies have also directly sponsored the Tour de France or formed their own teams to participate in the competition. The Discovery Channel took over the deal from the US Postal Service at a high price because they valued the growing popularity of cycling in the United States and even the world under the guidance of Armstrong's miracle. Influence.

During this period, the Tour de France and even the entire cycling sport ushered in a "golden age" of commercial development. However, the abuse of doping has ruined the Tour de France's future. This year's Tour de France lost a lot of viewers, with only 2.2 billion viewers, which is no longer comparable to the 30 billion viewers of the World Cup in Germany. Apparently, the doping scandal has turned the public away from cycling.

In this context, the departure of Discovery Channel is not unexpected, and it can even be said to be a matter of time. Today's teams no longer have a signature American driver like Armstrong. After Armstrong retired, the reason why Discovery Channel continued to cooperate with the team at a cost of US$14 million per year was that the team was still expected to achieve good results in the Tour de France. However, the deterioration of the image of cycling, especially the suspicion that Contador, the new Tour de France champion trained by the team, had taken banned drugs, consumed the last bit of patience of Discovery Channel executives. In addition, Discovery Channel is an educational channel and has always had a very good public image in the United States. The suspected use of sports banned substances by one of its teams will definitely have a negative impact on its image. Therefore, the departure of Discovery Channel is not a normal handover of commercial sponsorship like the departure of the US Postal Service, but a vote of no confidence in the future of cycling as a whole. The disbandment of this team with the most glorious record is actually an elegy to the "golden era" of cycling in the past decade.