5 ms·

A UCI WorldTeam has a budget of about 10 to 60 million euros. That's peanuts in a lot of other sports.

skeeter2020 2y ago
Maybe mainstream sports, but not when you spread it across the number of fans and account for their intensity. The Tour de France is likely the only cycling event most people can name. It's an awful lot of money for a very niche sport.
- jeroen 2y ago
  The TdF is apparently the 2nd most watched sporting event in the world, with 3.5 billion viewers. That's not very niche. -- https://www.roadtrips.com/blog/the-most-watched-sporting-events-in-the-world/ https://www.roadtrips.com/blog/the-most-watched-sporting-eve...
  - borroka 2y ago
    The number, which by the common person is to be interpreted as unique viewers, is blatantly absurd.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
- jdietrich 2y ago
  It's a niche sport in the US, but it's huge in lots of European countries. Conversely, most Europeans would struggle to name a single baseball or American football team, but they're far from niche sports in their domestic market.
bell-cot 2y ago
If that budget is for an 8-man team, in a sport with a 3 1/2-week season... An (American) NFL team has 53 "active" players (plus a practice squad, plus ...), and plays a 5-month season. And has a lot of "maintain a major stadium"-type expenses, which (my guess) cycling teams don't have. Based on your figures, and trying to scale...no, the cycling team budgets really aren't peanuts by comparison. NFL Data: https://shareholder.broadridge.com/pdf/2022-packers-annual-report.pdf https://shareholder.broadridge.com/pdf/2022-packers-annual-r...
- matsemann 2y ago
  It's clear you don't know much about cycling. A pro team often consists of ~30 riders, and then 8~12 of them are selected for various races during the year. And similarly, that's the main team and they have development teams on the second level, junior teams, women teams etc The season is longer than tour de france, that's just the most prestigious tour. There are other tours and other races. It's about 8 months long. And I don't really think how long the season is has any relevance. You still train and need your apparatus whole year round. The stadium stuff also doesn't really work in the favor of nfl. A pro team makes no money on tickets or concessions, and has to travel the world with their gear instead of a few states away.
  - wnc3141 2y ago
    The tour I think of like the World Series or Champions League tournament. Only one, highly visible, piece of a long calender (roughly Februrary to October)
- roelschroeven 2y ago
  > An (American) NFL team has 53 "active" players (plus a practice squad, plus ...), and plays a 5-month season. And has a lot of "maintain a major stadium"-type expenses, which (my guess) cycling teams don't have. Cycling teams have all kinds of expenses too. True, they don't have to maintain a major stadium. But hey do have cars to assist the riders with food, drinks, spare tires, spare bikes if needed (sometimes multiple types of bike for some of the riders); team busses with showers, more food, meeting room (I think they also have washing machines in them, to provide the riders with clean clothing every day in a stage race); a service course for all the equipment, and to adjust and fix the bikes. Plus personnel to equip all those, plus personnel along the road with more food and drinks, and in some races also with spare wheels. Pro teams often participate in multiple races at the same time, so they need all that equipment times two or three. These days many teams haul mattresses along on stage races, to guarantee good sleep for the riders. All of that stuff, and the people involved, need to be transported to each race on time, sometimes to the other end of the world. I don't know how that compares with say an NFL team, but I do know my head starts to hurt when I think about how to organize all of that (and more; I most likely forgot some stuff) throughout the year.

skeeter2020 2y ago

Maybe mainstream sports, but not when you spread it across the number of fans and account for their intensity. The Tour de France is likely the only cycling event most people can name. It's an awful lot of money for a very niche sport.

jeroen 2y ago
The TdF is apparently the 2nd most watched sporting event in the world, with 3.5 billion viewers. That's not very niche. -- https://www.roadtrips.com/blog/the-most-watched-sporting-events-in-the-world/ https://www.roadtrips.com/blog/the-most-watched-sporting-eve...
- borroka 2y ago
  The number, which by the common person is to be interpreted as unique viewers, is blatantly absurd.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
jdietrich 2y ago
It's a niche sport in the US, but it's huge in lots of European countries. Conversely, most Europeans would struggle to name a single baseball or American football team, but they're far from niche sports in their domestic market.

bell-cot 2y ago

If that budget is for an 8-man team, in a sport with a 3 1/2-week season... An (American) NFL team has 53 "active" players (plus a practice squad, plus ...), and plays a 5-month season. And has a lot of "maintain a major stadium"-type expenses, which (my guess) cycling teams don't have. Based on your figures, and trying to scale...no, the cycling team budgets really aren't peanuts by comparison. NFL Data: https://shareholder.broadridge.com/pdf/2022-packers-annual-report.pdf https://shareholder.broadridge.com/pdf/2022-packers-annual-r...

matsemann 2y ago
It's clear you don't know much about cycling. A pro team often consists of ~30 riders, and then 8~12 of them are selected for various races during the year. And similarly, that's the main team and they have development teams on the second level, junior teams, women teams etc The season is longer than tour de france, that's just the most prestigious tour. There are other tours and other races. It's about 8 months long. And I don't really think how long the season is has any relevance. You still train and need your apparatus whole year round. The stadium stuff also doesn't really work in the favor of nfl. A pro team makes no money on tickets or concessions, and has to travel the world with their gear instead of a few states away.
- wnc3141 2y ago
  The tour I think of like the World Series or Champions League tournament. Only one, highly visible, piece of a long calender (roughly Februrary to October)
roelschroeven 2y ago
> An (American) NFL team has 53 "active" players (plus a practice squad, plus ...), and plays a 5-month season. And has a lot of "maintain a major stadium"-type expenses, which (my guess) cycling teams don't have. Cycling teams have all kinds of expenses too. True, they don't have to maintain a major stadium. But hey do have cars to assist the riders with food, drinks, spare tires, spare bikes if needed (sometimes multiple types of bike for some of the riders); team busses with showers, more food, meeting room (I think they also have washing machines in them, to provide the riders with clean clothing every day in a stage race); a service course for all the equipment, and to adjust and fix the bikes. Plus personnel to equip all those, plus personnel along the road with more food and drinks, and in some races also with spare wheels. Pro teams often participate in multiple races at the same time, so they need all that equipment times two or three. These days many teams haul mattresses along on stage races, to guarantee good sleep for the riders. All of that stuff, and the people involved, need to be transported to each race on time, sometimes to the other end of the world. I don't know how that compares with say an NFL team, but I do know my head starts to hurt when I think about how to organize all of that (and more; I most likely forgot some stuff) throughout the year.