Monday’s Mailbag: ProTour should imitate Euro’ football; selling shares not easy; forget Europe, think Tour of Americas
- By VeloNews.com
- Published Mar. 12, 2007
- Updated Nov. 4, 2009 at 12:36 AM UTC
The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you havea comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen incycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write toWebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name andhome town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writersare encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month.The letters published here contain the opinions of the submittingauthors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, policies or positionsof VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, InsideCommunications, Inc.
Forget F1 — follow football’s lead
Editor:
I think everyone in this UCI-ASO dispute needs to think about the greater good for cycling and not about themselves. Everyone needs to cool off and take a deep breath and let the men in Lycra race.
My suggestion would be to put together a system such as European football, with one league but two or three levels. All cycling teams would be included in the ProTour but could be relegated to a lower level based upon performance.
Race organizers would be required to include the top-tier teams in all races. With a top tier limited to 16-18 teams, organizers could include two to four wild cards in each race.
Teams that finish in the top 10 to 12 in the ProTour each year would get automatic berths for the next year at the top level. The next four to six teams would get conditional inclusion for the next year. A conditional team finishing out of the top 12 for a second year could be relegated in the third year and would have to rely on wild cards and good finishes in the continental tours. This would allow continental teams to be elevated to the top tier based on success.
A selection committee composed of commissioners from the UCI, each grand tour, cyclists and an independent commissioner, chosen from among the directors of the continental tours on a rotating basis, would decide which teams get relegated and which teams get elevated.
This would create a system of fairness and allow teams to earn their way to the top. It would also get rid of teams that stink and keep successful teams looking for top talent.
Les Battersby
Santa Clara, California
Selling shares isn’t as simple as it sounds
Editor:
Regarding Gary Stetler’s letter about selling shares in a bike race (see Friday’s Mailbag: Sell shares to bolster U.S. races”): If only it were that simple. In the United States the Securities and Exchange Commission oversees the selling of just such shares and your idea isn’t as simple as it sounds.
A company would have to be formed, the shares it wishes would have to be registered and then you could begin selling — if you can find a market maker to take it public. What is the cost for that? Probably around $100,000-200,000 minimum, plus at least six months to get to the public selling point, at which time you have raised zero dollars.
I wish I had better news but it is always politics or bureaucracy that slows the process down.
Tony Rolfe
Chicago, Illinois
Bring it all back home
Editor:
With the mess that European cycling is in right now, this would be a great opportunity for the U.S. and other countries in the Americas to form their own pro cycling tours.
It might take a while for these races to become “classics,” but as in baseball, hockey, basketball, auto racing, tennis, and even now the NFL, the U.S. has proven itself as an international sports destination for most professional athletes anyway. Even the Tour de France had to exist as publicity for a newspaper before it claimed its legendary status in sports.
If the UCI and ASO can’t fix the mess they’ve created, why not reinvent the sport here on our continent?
Robert Gilpatrick
Fort Jackson, South Carolina