He laughed and explained the economics of Pro golf.
As long as you can make the cut, you earn enough to pay for the hotel.
You would still have a ‘Patron’, still need to speak French, still have cliques...
Might be fun to watch?
I have never understood why hitting a little ball can command so much money and a near cult like following.
I know a woman who spent years on the LPGA tour and wound up with around $2 million career earnings. Not much left after expenses, but she did make a very comfortable retirement from endorsements and promo tours in places like Japan.
There is a lot to be said for this theory. Of course a better funded team is going to hire better riders. But, personality stars like Peter Sagan will always shine on their own.
The idea of salary capping might make reasonable debate, but I suspect the UCI is run much the same as the IOC and it would take some influential people like Merckx, LeMond and maybe Phil Liggett to move the conversation to a public discourse.
The USA Pro Challenge was actually canceled this year, due to sponsorship issues. Kinda surprising, because it brought a lot of money into the state.
From a business sense - which the Tour has become - there is a very poor ROI on being a team sponsor. Racing has taken the role of “domestique” to the business.
This year, I saw many reports on the cost of team busses, bikes and even wheels. It is very grand! The level of staff to support the riders has ballooned too. All to gain a few seconds over the next best rider. Marginal Returns are not equalling Marginal Costs, IMHO.
This will sort itself out. Either a very different Tour evolves (ala NFL, for example) or it will financially eat itself from within.
Pro cyclists mostly earn peanuts compared to most pro athletes. Fifteen or twenty stars earn pretty good money (like a journeyman baseball player), but I think mostpros earn under $100K per year. They go home, open a bicycle shop or a cafe, and lead a normal life in a normal house, not a gated mansion.
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.............
There’s nothing wrong with the Tour that more doping wouldn’t fix ...