ASO vs. UCI: the peace deal
Posted on 30. Sep, 2008 in Bike Racing, Sports Business
At least for the foreseeable future, it’s over. Not surprisingly, the Grand Tours got what they wanted. Although there will still be something called the ProTour, there will also be something called the Historical Calendar including all events organized by ASO, RCS, and Unipublic. These organizers will keep full control over team selections and presumably won’t have their TV rights bundled in with the ProTour. I said a long time ago that the best the UCI could hope to get from ASO would be to handle drug testing, and that’s pretty much what they got. They also get to say that they “sanction” the HC races, which in practical terms doesn’t mean anything.
Furthermore, allowing the UCI to hang around means that the headaches of drug testing, global marketing, and athlete development for HC races are subsidized by the rest of the cycling world. Then again, the rest of the cycling world owes much of its existence to the Tour de France.
The UCI will claim that the ProTour still gives them the opportunity to expand globally, with the Tour Down Under, the Tour of Sochi in Russia, and the Tour of China that will eventually get off the ground. That’s not insignificant, but the US market is has the most potential outside of western Europe and ASO remains the gatekeeper here because of their partnership with AEG and the Tour of California.
Pat McQuaid has said that he expects the teams to re-up on their ProTour licenses now that a settlement has been reached, but I’m not sure why they would. The license offers no guarantee of starting the Grand Tours or any cut of TV revenue, but still requires teams to send riders and staff all over the world to markets where their sponsors might not have any business interests. I don’t see the incentive.
Velonews.com has the projected calendars.
