Timothy John
Having considered the plight of the riders, working hard to make a living from cycling in a domestic scene hit by Covid and declining investment, and instability even at its highest level, let’s turn our attention to teams.
In our last episode, Phil accurately described their total dependence on sponsorship as a ‘boom and bust’ model. With a new season fast approaching, has Phil noticed any evidence of a changed approach?
Phil Jones MBE: no change in 2020 to cycling’s ‘boom and bust’ dependence on sponsorship
“Businesses start and businesses fail, and in the sport of cycling, teams will start and teams will fail and end. This is just the natural rhythm of life. I think in the longer term, if I’m looking at the domestic sport right now and saying: ‘Right, are we seeing any systemic shift in the way that the business model works, either in the teams or in the governing body or anything around the model, such as events,’ then I would have to say, ‘No, I haven’t.’ I haven’t seen any stick shifts in 2020 which are going to change the fabric of the sport for 2021 and beyond. Unfortunately, the problem still exists at a structural level about how the sport works and whether or not that’s ever going to change itself, well, we’ll see.”
Timothy John
“The issue of road racing’s funding model is at once simple and complex. The simplicity lies in identifying the missing revenue. Put simply, race organisers can’t charge punters to watch from the roadside. Further, the handful who generate an income from selling televised coverage - vast conglomerates like Tour de France owners ASO - don’t share broadcast revenues with the teams.
“The complexity lies in identifying revenue streams to replace the gate receipts and television revenues of sports like football, rugby and cricket. The challenge is difficult, but not impossible. In episode five, Phil identified the game-changing revenues offered to teams by the new discipline of e-racing. With many of his insights validated by the subsequent hosting of cycling’s first e-sports world championships, it seems only sensible to ask Phil what further opportunities he can identify.”
Phil Jones MBE: new revenue streams for domestic teams
“It’s the question everyone wants answering, isn’t it? What is the silver bullet that’s going to turn around a team or the sport. I think what we’re looking at is: ‘Is there a better way, whereby a team with some certainty can know that it has incomes beyond the season that it is in?’ More than a one-year contract: two years, three years, four years, five years.
“If you look at other sports, the English Premier League, for example, where they have a responsibility to send some money down the pyramid; to send the elevator back down to some of the smaller teams, and you look at the money around the UCI WorldTour and say, is there a percentage that ought to be scooped off to support development pathways? So that’s one thing.
“If you look at riders and how they’re moving from the domestic scene into the WorldTour, there isn’t any, unlike some other professional sports, drag-and-tag payment, whereby they say: ‘Well, they started their career here, so if they become super successful then what we’re expecting is for some money to flow back to recognise where the development started,’ and that could be at the level of an individual rider.”
Timothy John
Funding from the UCI WorldTour, distributed by the governing body for teams lower down professional cycling’s pyramid sounds like a sensible solution. If Team INEOS, for example, isn’t minded to create a UCI Continental squad to serve as an incubator, a sliver of its £40m annual operating budget, shared from a collective pot by the UCI, would do much to resolve the annual funding crises of smaller squads.
Similarly, Phil’s suggestion of a transfer fee represents another mechanism by which the sport’s wealth could be redistributed. What other means might be available? Staying with football, the biggest clubs do an effective job of monetising the passion of their fans. And let’s not overlook the governing body: British Cycling generates substantial revenues in membership fees. Could some of this income be channelled to the support of grassroots teams? Phil believes so.
Phil Jones MBE: cycling teams should monetise fan support; British Cycling should contribute membership fees
“Still, in my view, I don’t think enough is done, by teams to bring their fans into the funding model: to say, ultimately, be part of the team, be part of our future, create a model whereby a fan can give directly to a team, knowing that as a fan of the sport, they are helping to fund that team for the longer team.
And then of course you’ve got the federation, British Cycling. The federation collects annual subscriptions from British Cycling members and from other funding sources. You could also look at that and say: ‘Does the federation have any role within this to try and have some money that they accrue in their annual incomes to flow back directly to development of the sport and the sustainability of the teams participating in the sport?’”
Timothy John
While teams come and go from every level of the sport with alarming regularity, some get it right, year-after-year. Increasingly, those able to stay the course do so with an engaging presentation able to generate return on investment for sponsors, almost regardless of results. In the men’s UCI WorldTour, Team EF Education First are a fine example. The women’s team with arguably the strongest identity in the Women’s WorldTour is Canyon-SRAM. While both are regular race winners, boasting rosters filled with formidable riding talent, neither is dominant.
Matt Hallam, owner and manager of the Brother UK-sponsored Crimson Performance-Orientation Marketing squad might have been taking notes. A young manager in a hurry, next year his team will begin its fourth season by again increasing its budget and expanding its squad. It’s no coincidence that Matt’s team does a fine job with content, providing sponsors like Brother UK with a regular supply of high-quality films and images in which logo placement is prominent. The same strategy has attracted a new sponsor for 2021: one of a scale and kudos that Matt believes will change the game for his team.
Matt Hallam: the value of content
“In my opinion, the biggest thing that has allowed the team to grow at the rate it has done is the image that it’s achieved. I can confidently say, going into 2021, we’ll be turning heads next year with what we’re going to be doing. We’ve got an absolutely massive deal in place. It’s a culmination of this three-year project I put in place, and I’m absolutely just amazed that I’ve been able to pull this off. I can’t believe it.
“A brand like the sponsor I’ve signed a deal with, would never, ever have approached someone like us if they didn’t think we were on-image. All the work we’ve done through the social media, through outreach opportunities, through news channels on line, sponsors - Brother UK providing us with a lot of outreach opportunities - and utilising every one of those and producing really good content that’s professional and makes us look like a Continental team. That’s what’s got us to this position now.
“I can show sponsors my portfolio of content, and I can guarantee you that’s on par with a Continental team, if not better. I can provide them with an opportunity to come into this for not a lot of money. I can get these deals signed quickly because people want to be involved with our project. We look cool. We look good on bikes. I’ve got a great group of riders who are approachable. We provide sponsors with continuous content and that’s what really set us onto the trajectory that we’re on at the moment.”
Timothy John
Satisfying sponsors with high-quality content that celebrates the partnership of team and corporate backer is clearly a critical consideration, and especially in a year with no racing. With no events to report, no victories to celebrate or results to analyse, the ability to fill social media channels and corporate brochures with images of a honed athletes living the values of sporting excellence takes on an added importance.
The values piece is significant. For Becks Durrell, a personable and intelligent ambassador for her team and its sponsors, as well as a formidable riding talent, a sponsor’s association with the values of sport is almost as important as brand exposure. Logo placement is only one benefit, she argues, with which cycling can repay its backers. She argues for embedding values inside an event, much as Belgium’s kermesse races typically form the centre piece of town festivals that represent a wider celebration of community and civic pride.
Rebecca Durrell: sporting values are important to sponsors
“I guess one way to look at is to look at how other nations have made a success of their domestic calendars. I know over on the Continent a lot of races are based around families and having fayres and getting everyone involved in the race. It’s not necessarily only about the bike race. It’s about everything else that goes with it.
“I think this can translate over to the whole point of sponsorship for teams as well. When you’ve got a sporting team, especially on a domestic level, it isn’t necessarily all about getting a sponsor's logo out there. That is very, very important, but I think a lot of it is about the ethos of the team and what people gain from the team; what supporters gain from the team. With that, it’s all of the values of sport. It’s why we do it. It’s teamwork, it’s dedication, it’s discipline. You try and change yourself for the better and that gives other people enthusiasm to do the same for themselves.”
“I don’t know how it’s possible but if that come somehow be strengthened and bolstered within our sport at the domestic level, and if that becomes one of the key aims of the races - to try and boost those feelings and those values by having it as part of a bigger event - then I think it will only go from strength to strength.”
Timothy John
So how important are the values of sport to a corporate backer? Few are better qualified to answer than my co-host Phil Jones, Brother UK’s Managing Director.
A major business in the United Kingdom, and part of a global technology brand of vast scale, values are a critical consideration, both internally and externally, for Brother and for Phil.
Sponsorship investments send a signal to the outside world, but offer an internal message of equal importance: a sign, in the case of cycling, that physical health, mental wellbeing, active travel and dedication to personal growth are shared values.
It comes as little surprise, then, that Phil - an authoritative voice on leadership and corporate cultures, - is keenly aware of cycle sport’s values proposition and shares Rebecca’s belief in its importance to securing long-term sustainability for teams and events.
Phil Jones MBE: sporting values mirror Brother UK’s commitment to growth for its partners and people
“I totally get that and Becks is making a really, really important point. When we’re thinking about where we’re going to put our overall investment, ultimately what it really is about is creating the platforms for people to improve their potential. It allows somebody, whether we’re sponsoring a team or a race or providing the neutral service to train for something, aspire to something and to be something that they previously might not have been.
“We very much see that and why we’ve done a lot of our grassroots investigating is the sheer joy that we get seeing people who are improving and growing themselves. Part of our strapline behind the scenes is to grow ourselves through growing others. That, from a professional perspective, means we want to grow our channel partners and our business partners to become better businesses and to grow through our partnership or the products that they sell. But if we take that and we lift it up and put that into, ‘Well, why are we into domestic cycling?’ we can also say we’re trying to do exactly the same thing in order to amplify that ultimate position and statement.”
Timothy John
Phil’s strong grasp of sponsorship in its many forms is literally part of the job for the leader of a major business. Increasingly, however, it is a major concern for teams and riders.
Anyone competing at any level of a sport dependent on brand exposure for income needs to understand and appreciate the mechanics of content and marketing, and almost every member of the Brother Cycling family seems to do so.
For Sophie Wright, forging her way in a branch of the sport desperate for exposure, and Matt Hallam, seeking to satisfy sponsors with a blend of positive association and reach, television remains an important part of the jigsaw.
What ‘television’ means as we approach the third decade of the second millennia, however, is open to debate. British Cycling caused consternation among teams earlier this year when it announced it would no longer fund coverage on Eurosport, but Erick Rowsell maintains that the federation is committed to exploring other avenues.
Let’s hear from each of them, starting with Sophie.
Sophie Wright: the value to sponsors of television coverage
“Sponsors want to see themselves on TV. They want to be getting themselves out there, and so many women’s races aren’t televised. That’s the thing. When a sponsor sees themselves on television, they can see the worth. They can see that their money and support is actually worth it. It’s when they can’t see themselves on TV, and when the sponsors’ logos aren’t being shown, they’re quite quick to pull out. because they have much bigger priorities to think about than sponsoring a women’s team. But, yeah, you don’t get much sense of security really.”
Matt Hallam: the value to sponsors of television coverage
“From a sponsor’s perspective, putting in money to a race team and [gaining] visibility is a key return that they’re looking for, and television outreach provides that. When that’s taken away, it’s difficult to really fill that gap. You’ve got to try and find other ways to fill that huge hole that’s been left in your sponsorship proposal that you delivered at the start of when conversations appear for sponsorship heading into the next year.”
Erick Rowsell: British Cycling, Eurosport coverage, and value for money
“It wasn’t value for money at all, having it on Eurosport at 11pm, two weeks after it happened and anyone who said there was massive value in that, I would seriously question it, but is there value in a live stream? Again, we did that for the Elite Circuit Series last year. There wasn’t a huge following on that, I wouldn’t’ have said. It was ok. But again, for the money it cost to do a live stream, was there the return? I don’t know. I’m not in that area of expertise to know if there was or not. It’s certainly not something which has been put to bed and forgotten about. it’s still ongoing, with different ways to do it, with organisers as individuals and us as a governing body.”
Timothy John
Talk of television leads us back to the vital nature of sponsorship. A cycling team with aspirations for national success simply can’t survive without it.
Matt Hallam is not the only manager in the Brother Cycling family with an enviable record for retaining sponsors - Team Brother UK-Onfform’s Simon Howes can make a similar boast - but the speed with which Matt has grown his team and its commercial support is impressive.
He doesn’t offer his success as a template, and maintains that each team must find its own way, but there must be aspects of his approach from which others can learn.
Matt Hallam: attracting sponsors and forming lasting relationships
“I’ve been very fortunate in the sense that I’ve kept a lot of my founding sponsors from when we started the team back in 2018. I’ve kept over 90 per cent of my sponsors that put financial investment into the team. I’ve already got three years of developing relationships with each of those, so it then becomes a lot easier for them to buy into the vision of what you’re trying to achieve with the team. They can see the progression year-on-year. They can see how the team is progressing as well; how it looks on social media, how it looks in marketing campaigns. That does equate to a lot as well.
“It’s going to be different for everyone who has a team. and is lucky enough to be in a position to pursue running a race time but that’s the way I did it, so I can’t really speak for anyone else. I was fortunate in that sense that I had contacts in place through my job as being a bike fitter. I was meeting lots of different people. I was able to utilise those contacts to get enough sponsorship to get a team off the ground. I’ve built on that year-on-year. I’ve been lucky enough to bring in additional resource: new sponsors that have seen what wave’ been able to do. It still equates to a lot of money for the businesses who back us, but it’s not significant amounts of money. We can provide a lot of return for that now.”
Timothy John
Matt’s final sentence is the most revealing: he is focussed on what his team can provide for its sponsors, and not the other way around. The distinction is critical, according to Phil Jones, and he of all people should know.
As well as planning Brother UK’s strategic development and managing a plethora of day-to-day issues, Phil plays a vital role in managing the company’s sponsorship portfolio: a comprehensive series of investments in organisations as diverse as the Halle Orchestra and the Tour of Britain.
Armed with a 30 years of experience in sales, including as Brother UK’s Sales Director, before becoming leader of the business, it’s fair to say that Phil knows more than a little about writing an effective proposal.
Phil Jones MBE: how to write an effective sponsorship proposal
“Tim, I could write a book on this one, because I receive so many sponsorship proposals, and I don’t just mean from cycling teams. It’s been very busy in the last few weeks, to be fair, with people knocking on the door, but I mean from all sports, cultural organisations, events; all sorts of things. We are constantly approached and asked for financial support of one kind or another.
“I was discussing this with someone the other day who’d asked my advice. I’d recently done a talk on this issue. I guess if I was to take the last 100 proposals that I’ve seen and say, well, which one worked and got some air time, and why did the 99 others not get air time, it’s primary because the 99 others were poorly researched, very vanilla and they didn’t think about how Brother might benefit from the partnership.”
Timothy John
Teams who focus proposals on themselves rather than the sponsor reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the relationship. Worse, they shine a spotlight on the generic nature of their offer.
Think about it: almost every team that approaches Brother UK competes in the same races and has a broadly similar list of benefits: logo placement on the jersey, logo placement on the car, and a social media following of greater or lesser significance. The net effect is the ‘vanilla’ sensation that Phil describes.
His advice is simple: do your research, identify how sponsoring your team will help their business, and, above all, make it personal. Those who don’t must prepare to pay the ‘we fee’.
Phil Jones MBE: the ‘we fee’
“The trick that I’ve learned after 30 years in sales is really, really simple: the more personal you make it, the more researched it is the higher the propensity that you will achieve success in what it is your trying to do when you’re trying to gain sponsorship or asking for some sort of paid partnership. It really comes down to that. The people who are most successful and the people where we’ve thought, ‘Oh, that’s interesting’ have tended to be highly personalised approaches where something comes in and you say: ‘Now that is not a blanket proposal. That is something that has been prepared for us and we can see the value in it.’”
“I have a little one-liner that I say, which effectively means: ‘You will pay the we-fee’. So the price you’re going to pay, if all you talk about is you: ‘We, we, we, we, we, we, we.’ The fee you’re going to pay is that we are not going to listen to you. So you will pay the ‘we fee’ if you don’t personalise your proposals. And, if you use the word ‘we’ far too much in your in-bound communication. ‘We’re this, we’re that, we’re the other.’ Rather than, ‘you’. Have a look at what you’re preparing, have a look at the process you’re undertaking and make it all about the person that you’re approaching.”
Timothy John
It’s natural that private businesses ask what value lies for them in a sponsorship agreement. As the uncompromising realities of a post-Covid and post-Brexit economy grow, their search for value is likely to grow ever more intense.
So how can British Cycling support teams in their bid for survival? It’s in the federation’s interest, of course, to have actors in the drama of their National Road Series.
Erick Rowsell, British Cycling’s Elite Road Racing Manager, believes the federation’s new Elite Development Team status will add validity to domestic teams operating to the highest standards.
BC’s offering - space for Elite Development Teams on its website and social channels, and perhaps even a logo for their jerseys - will make them more attractive to sponsors and race organisers, he believes.
Erick Rowsell on Elite Development Team status
“It’s very much giving them that status that they can then use and say to sponsors: ‘Look, we are an Elite Development Team. We are highly regarded by British Cycling.’ We want to create a page on the British Cycling website which is dedicated to these teams, so that when they’re talking to sponsors or even to race organisers they have somewhere to direct them. They can go onto the governing body’s website that has just a small plug for the team, some links to the team’s social channels and website, or a feature on the team. We’ll then do some regular digital stuff thought-out the season with the team, so we’ll keep on top with that sort of thing.
“Some teams are really good at that already. Some teams are fantastic with their social and digital side. Some teams might need a little bit more support. For some teams, it’ll be a huge benefit for them. I spoke to some managers who say that when they try to get invitations to UCI races and they’re not a UCI team, so they approach them, effectively, as a club team. But if they can go to them and say: ‘Look, we’re recognised by British Cycling as one of these Elite Development Teams’, it just holds a little bit more status for them. It may work, it may not, but it’s certainly not going to do any harm for any team to have that status from us and that recognition to go out to sponsors and say: ‘We’re recognised on the website as one of the better teams,
“We’re also trying to create some assets for teams to use, so get some logos designed; a bit like they use for the UCI Europe Tour, where all the teams have the little logo on their jersey. We’re not going to say all the teams have to have it on the jersey, but just to give them some assets and digital assets that they can use when they’re approaching people, putting sponsor packs together and things like that. It’s all about trying to recognise these teams that are doing things in the right way, supporting the riders, providing them with that platform, and then us as a governing body trying to support them in doing that and offer them that backing from us as well to do what they’re doing.”
Timothy John
The Elite Development Team status and Erick’s longer-term ambition to introduce a tiered structure to national domestic road racing represent real change after years of decline.
He believes that teams like Cycling Sheffield represent a vital stepping stone between clubs and UCI Continental teams, and cites Conor Swift’s progression to the UCI WorldTour, via Madison-Genesis, as evidence for what Elite Development Teams might achieve.
So what value might it hold for a team like Brother UK-sponsored Crimson Performance-Orientation Marketing, a squad that already excels in its presentation and with ambitions beyond elite status.
Matt Hallam says he needs more details, but gains confidence from Erick’s experience in domestic road racing and remains cautiously optimistic.
Matt Hallam: Elite Development Team status
“I can see the theory and the principles behind why they’re pursuing a tiered approach and introducing this Elite Development Team status. It’s nice to see ideas implemented; it’s great to see that, after years of being in a stagnant position where ideas would be introduced but nothing would ever happen. It’s great to see things being actioned.
“Change is, in my opinion, a good thing. It needs change. We’re getting that change, and we’ve got someone who’s driving it who has been involved in domestic cycling in the UK for a long time. They know how things should work. I can only see that as being a positive. I need to understand things a bit better after speaking to Erick, but from what I can see right now, I think it’s a big step forwards for us.”
Timothy John
Matt is not alone in extending a cautious welcome to Erick’s initiatives. We heard from race organiser Peter Harrison in part one of this episode how Erick had won the hearts and minds of the National Organisers Group.
The subsequent publication of Erick’s National Road Series and Elite Circuit Series calendar for men and women in 2021 have been well received and not least by Phil Jones, who cites the confidence sponsors gain from seeing such tangible milestones drawn on the road map to activation.
But what does Phil make of the Elite Development Status? Will it reveal the underlying ambition of a team: whether it is focussed on encouraging participation or growing into a more performance-focussed outfit?
And, critically, can it be regarded as a substitute for UCI Continental status, coveted by domestic teams as the minimum entry requirement for the Tour of Britain and its guaranteed seven days of national television exposure? Here’s Phil.
Phil Jones MBE: Elite Development Team status
“Another tricky issue Tim, for sure. What we’re actually saying is, there’s quite an expensive ticket price to pay to get yourself on the list of people who might get one of those qualification places into the Tour of Britain. But the ticket price you’ve got to pay even to be on that list is your UCI registration which costs money.
“I think what you’ve got to ask yourself is: ‘What is your aspiration? Where are you trying to sit in the hierarchy of the sport?’ Because, ultimately, if you’re quite happy to be an Elite Development Team and you’re in this because what you actually want is to see riders do well, develop, begin to race, fill the sport up with a lot of active participants then, actually, this will be unimportant to you, to have UCI status.
“If you’ve got loftier ambitions to head up the ranks and ultimately become a WorldTour team one day, or if you’ve got a much higher overhead cost, rider salary bill, part of the model simply is, ‘We want to be a team with £300k, £400k, £500k. We have to be in the Tour of Britain. We have to race this seasons like we’ve got to qualify: every race is all about qualification. We’ve hung our hat with sponsors on that ambition.’
“So it’s quite a high-risk strategy. It’s Monte Carlo or bust, really Tim, isn’t it? We’re looking to achieve this, but there isn’t a guarantee you’re going to achieve it. The Tour of Britain is a qualification process but it could well be that as we end this year and begin into 2021 that might be all automatic qualification because of the number of UCI Continental teams that we have in the UK.
“So I think to some degree, Erick’s got a point here. Is it about having loads and loads of teams who are living from hand-to-mouth, all trying to squeeze into this Tour of Britain qualification? That might not be the model which will make the sport sustainable for the long term.”
Timothy John
Is the domestic road scene reaching a turning point?
Erick Roswell’s priorities as Elite Road Racing Manager and drastically changed economic conditions from a monied heyday in which the sport bathed in the reflected glow of Bradley Wiggins’ Tour de France victory and home Olympic success, seem to be shifting the scene’s emphasis from the achievements of a privately-funded few to raised standards among a broader constituency.
Whether this more accurately reflects the proper purpose of a domestic scene, or the wider economic realities of a sport that leaves riders even as talented as Harry Tanfield falling in and out of the UCI WorldTour, is an interesting topic for debate.
If applying the gloss of professional marketing to the National Road Series would give it a sheen to match the Olympic Academy’s golden achievements, would riders like Rebecca Durrell be struggling to convince WorldTour teams of her talent? Or should the federation’s first priority for its national series always be to provide a first opportunity?
The fact remains that within recent memory the scene supported six, British-registered, UCI Continental teams in which full-time and salaried staff and riders, and that, in 2012, one of them won the Tour of Britain. However tarnished the individual result, Endura Racing’s team performance that week cannot be questioned.
Are participation and performance necessarily exclusive? One team to have risen rapidly from nothing is Brother UK-sponsored Crimson Performance-Orientation Marketing: a team founded to grant opportunities to riders in the North West, but which has proved that professional presentation is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Team owner and manager Matt Hallam has demonstrated the keenest understanding of the undeniable value of content and marketing from day one and has reaped the benefits each year in the shape of increased budgets and expanded squads.
While rivals retrench their positions or conclude their operations entirely, Matt’s men and women prepare to don a new iteration of a sleek crimson kit replete with the names of sponsors, like Brother UK, who have backed the team since inception and several new names besides: one of them, arguably, the biggest in the sport. Let’s leave the final word, then, to Matt.
Matt Hallam: embracing UCI Continental status and entry to the Tour of Britain
“I always had a dream of taking a team to the Tour of Britain. It was a pipe dream back in 2017 when I first started the race team but we’re getting close to being able to do this. That’s really pushing me on. I need this next year to go as well as it possibly can do for us to have a fighting chance to do it.
“What a story that would be for us to achieve that. We will be going into our fourth year of running the team next year. As you mentioned, a five-year plan. Let’s throw it out there: why not go UCI Continental, why not take a team to the Tour of Britain because we’re on the right path. We’re doing everything right. All we need now is to try and find that sponsor who can put in the resource to get us there.
“I do believe that we can provide that value, we can show them that, yes, we are worth inviting in. Sometimes you have to be bold and you to be brave, and I’ve never failed so far in running this team, so yeah, let’s set that goal and let’s see if we can do it.”
