Does the Tour de France Need a Financial Fix?

The divide between cycling’s haves and have-nots has led some to worry that this disparity will drain the excitement out of the Tour... Still, Froome acknowledged something significant the other day. He admitted that if he rode not for the well-funded Sky, which can afford to surround him with well-paid lieutenants, but for a smaller, lower-budgeted outfit, he probably would not be in the running for the yellow jersey. “If I was riding for a small team, it would be different,” Froome said.... Does pro cycling need a budget or a salary cap, such as the NFL, NBA or even Formula 1 have done? It’s definitely a topic of conversation.

Does pro cycling need a budget or a salary cap, such as the NFL, NBA or even Formula 1 have done?

NO, for starters, the European and other international riders need to be subjected to the intense scrutiny of the USADA as was Lance Armstrong. Once the top 30% (if not more) of all the riders are kicked out of the sport then they can start over and their sponsorship salaries will decline accordingly........

Actually, who cares what the salaries of the riders or the expenditures of their sponsors are..

Cycle racing is not exactly a tier one sport in the U.S.............

No, my logic is bothering to understand how economics actually works. Nope, that’s not my definition, that’s you making up a strawman that bears no actual resemblance to what I said. My example a business can’t make money without ALSO making somebody else money. That somebody else could be advertisers, suppliers, investors, and many others. Because that’s how it works. You can’t have something to sell without... well having something to sell, which means somebody else is making money. You need a location, gotta pay somebody for that. You need people to be aware of you, gotta pay somebody for that. All that starting capital had to come from somewhere, and they expect a return on that investment.

I was talking about how you as an individual make money, but how you as an individual make money is a BUSINESS TRANSACTION which might or might not include a paycheck.

Nope, you don’t have to be willing to take risks. In facts risks, being risks, are often a TERRIBLE way to make money. There’s plenty of people in this world making tons of money following the safe path of getting the “desirable” degree in the “right” school and getting into the “stable” business and working their corporate ladder. The CEO of my company never took a single risk, he has the classic “how to become a CEO” resume going back to his high school clubs. Heck even self driving like your property flipping isn’t that risky (at least if you’re doing it right), especially not in 2016 with literally decades worth of TV shows showing how to do it. Nope, risk is not a good way to make money, any professional gambler can tell you that. That path is actually: doing things that look risky to anybody who hasn’t done their homework, but if you actually know what you’re doing you’re playing the odds and on a safe path.

I stand by what I said because that is the truth of how economics works. If you want to make money you need to make somebody else money (that’s where your money comes from in the long run) and be hard to replace (because that’s why they give YOU the money and not somebody else, and the more rarefied the skill set the more you get, as limited by the first part).

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