Skyter Withdraws Sponsorship from Women's Team

by gavia on Dec 4, 2009 6:52 PM EST in Women's Cycling Comment 24 comments

According to Rad-net.de, Skyter has withdrawn its sponsorship support from the Equipe Nürnberger, whose roster includes Nicole Cooke, Tixi Worrack, and Amber Neben. The website received an advance copy of a press release, which will become public on Saturday. The withdrawal is effective immediately, and leaves the team, which is the top women's team in Germany, without a title sponsor. The statement from Skyter cites problems with the team's financial situation, specifically a lack of reliable information about its actual financial requirements. (The German is: Grund seien "weiterhin fehlende belastbare Angaben zum tatsächlichen Finanzbedarf der Equipe Nürnberger GmbH". Thanks to Tedvdw for the assist.) In short, the team has not clearly spelled out the financial demands for the coming season to the satisfaction of the sponsor. It's unclear exactly what is missing from the team's statement, but the news clearly has come as a surprise to the team management.

The team had already begun to prepare for the coming season and has contracts with 14 riders. Team manager Jochen Dornbusch called the situation a "catastrophe" in a brief statement to Rad-net.de. Dornbusch said that a few of the riders, stars like Nicole Cooke, Trixi Worrack, and Amber Neben, could find new teams, but the others would be hard-pressed to find positions at this late date. Dornbusch was also not optimistic about the chances of securing a new sponsor, despite the team's talented roster. Asked for comment, Trixi Worrack replied with a question: "What should I say, that we are happy?" Well no, Trixi, we can't imagine that you are. Even the team kits for the coming year are already made. Too bad no one will get to wear them.

Sponsorship for womens teams is always difficult to secure, especially so long as the media coverage remains so sparse. There can be few substitutes for video coverage of the races, which nearly all of the elite mens races take for granted, but few, if any, of the womens races receive. Hopefully, the team will find a sponsor, since they have assembled a very strong roster which looked likely to set up a some serious competition for last year's dominant teams Cervélo TestTeam and Columbia-HTC. For now, though, their future remains uncertain.

Read more about the team in Exploring the Womens Peloton.

— Sources, Rad-net.de and Radsport-news.com.

Photo, Bryn Lennon, Getty Images Sport.

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Comments

This is a huge hit for women's cycling and the riders.

I hate to see this happen to a team. I wish I could be more hopeful about finding a new sponsor, but I think the team is toast for now.

by dansel on Dec 4, 2009 7:04 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Very very sad news

both for the riders, and for the fact that it looked like next year would see some real competition between them, Cervelo and Columbia.

by Monty. on Dec 4, 2009 7:15 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Curse of la Cooke, I'm afraid.

Agree about the competition. Well, I hope they can find a replacement sponsor & keep the team together, but I’m not holding my breath.

by civetta on Dec 4, 2009 7:23 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I know, the poor girl!

And poor all of them. Sad state of affairs.

by Albertina on Dec 4, 2009 7:38 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Ta for the write up

Uncertainty about the financial requirements for next year, I think, more than debt from prev year.

by tedvdw on Dec 4, 2009 7:27 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

okay

I think you’re right that Finanzbedarf is requirements. Isn’t the fehlende belastbar bit refer to shortfalls? Man, I stared at this forever, sometimes the words just don’t want to make sense to me. My German fu was weak today, I think.

by gavia on Dec 4, 2009 7:36 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

“missing reliable indications on actual financial requirements”

by tedvdw on Dec 4, 2009 7:56 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

beautiful

thank you, i see it now. somehow, i just couldn’t nail it.

Now, I wonder what that actually means. The sponsor thinks the team has padded the budget somehow? Curious.

by gavia on Dec 4, 2009 7:58 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Bullshit excuse to back out of commitment at the last minute?

by Ed K on Dec 4, 2009 8:05 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I think the budget might have been lacking

in clarity, detail or whatnot. Civetta could well be right about the Cooke factor.

by tedvdw on Dec 4, 2009 8:18 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

(Er, that is not what I think, really. It is just a slight rephrasing of what Skyter says. Obviously I don’t know what to think.)

by tedvdw on Dec 4, 2009 9:03 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Equally I don't really think Cooke is cursed.

But for someone so obviously talented she does seem to have uncommonly bad luck with teams.

by civetta on Dec 4, 2009 9:09 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah

It just sounds weird to me, because it’s not a new team. They’ve been around for what, two seasons? It sounds odd that the management wouldn’t know how to put together the financials. But, this is womens racing, and the teams are not always run as professionally as they could be. My first thought, I have to say, was along the lines of Ed K’s comment – an excuse to withdraw, but there is the matter of a contract.

by gavia on Dec 5, 2009 8:51 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I still think that it's an excuse, just at a slightly more legal level...

…they found something they could plausibly characterize that way, and the legal fees to enforce the contract would be prohibitive for a team sans support, so…

Until a much more plausible explanation comes along, my bet is firmly on legal strong arm tactics here.

by Ed K on Dec 5, 2009 11:54 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

As Equipe Nurnburger they've been around for ten years.

so it could be that the team management had a relationship that didn’t necessarily stick with whatever the letter of the contract said, but in truth I know as much as you.

Skyter don’t actually have much of a presence on the web, but then I can’t imagine that the average web surfer is going to suddenly decide to charter a luxury yacht on the basis of a few funny flash cartoons (yacht is a bit misleading – think instead mini personal cruise ship). The company webpage comes below us, CN, and and the Swedish wiki entry on the Scythians on a Google search, and it’s hard to find anyone else talking about them.

Right now there’s a press release on their front page which reads:

Aufgrund weiterhin fehlender belastbarer Angaben zum tatsächlichen Finanzbedarf der Equipe Nürnberger GmbH bricht SKYTER die bis fortwährend geführten Vertragsverhandlungen als geplanter Hauptsponsor des Damen Radsport Teams zum heutigen Tag endgültig ab.

Die bis heute nur unvollständig vorliegenden Informationen lassen nach Ansicht von SKYTER erhebliche Deckungslücken im Etat der bevorstehenden Saison 2010 erwarten, die einen geregelten Rennbetrieb gefährden. Aufgrund der fortgeschrittenen Zeit und dem zähen Informationsfluss ist eine zufriedenstellende Klärung der finanzwirtschaftlichen offenen Fragen und ein weiteres Zuwarten für SKYTER nicht mehr möglich.

SKYTER bedauert zutiefst die damit verbundenen Unannehmlichkeiten für die Sportlerinnen der Equipe Nürnberger und wünscht Ihnen weiterhin viel Glück in Ihren sportlichen Karrieren.

and in English, courtesy of Google:

Due to continued lack of more robust information on the actual financial needs of Equipe Nürnberger GmbH SKYTER breaks the contract negotiations scheduled to run continuously as the main sponsor of the Women’s cycling teams from the final day.

The incomplete information available to date, only to be expected in the view of SKYTER significant shortfalls in the budget of the upcoming 2010 season, which threaten to regular racing. Due to the lateness of the hour and the tough financial and economic information a satisfactory clarification of outstanding issues and a further delay for SKYTER is no longer possible.

SKYTER deeply regrets the inconvenience to the athletes involved the Equipe Nürnberger and wish you continued good luck in your sporting careers.

I hope that this isn’t the last team to have financial problems before next season gets going, but there are other teams that I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for. I understand that Belisol, who were the second sponsor for Lotto, are stopping their support, and it there must be some concern over the fact that Marianne Vos still hasn’t announced a sponsorship deal. It is, after all, December.

by Monty. on Dec 6, 2009 5:58 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

"I hope that this isn’t the last team to have financial problems "

Why do you hate women Monty?

by Jens on Dec 6, 2009 8:58 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Do you really want

to see this place filled with cushions? and scented candles? And who exactly was on guard duty when the mud-bathing dolphins sneaked in?

by Monty. on Dec 6, 2009 12:56 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks

I didn’t realize they had been around for as long as that. What an odd sponsor, when it comes down to it, Skyter, I mean. Hmm, I can’t help but think that financial issues on their side have something to do with it. Mini personal cruise ships can’t be in huge demand at the moment.

by gavia on Dec 6, 2009 12:25 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

"Sponsorship for womens teams is always difficult to secure, especially so long as the media coverage remains so sparse."

I think this is the heart of the matter.

Frankly it’s a disgrace that there is so little women’s coverage – particularly as (on the basis of the few races that I have seen) the racing is particularly aggressive and exciting.

by Mark T1979 on Dec 5, 2009 10:29 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Yes, it's frustrating for sure

I’d love to see more viddy coverage of women’s racing. But I think more fundamentally, the womens teams and riders still need to do more to sell the sport and show sponsor, media, and would-be fans why it is compelling. At times, it seems to me, those involved with womens cycling act aggrieved at the lack of attention, as if they should be getting press simply because they’re out racing and as if the fans and media should feel guilty for not showcasing the sport. Me, I don’t want to be guilted into watching racing. I want to watch it because it’s fun. LOL, of course, I do think it’s fun ;-)

by gavia on Dec 6, 2009 12:28 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Here's an idea

Have the top girls take Cadel’s place at Omega Pharma.
The budget is there, they’re all really strong and the pub would be huge, though they might have to bring back the “Predictor” team kit.

by MavicMoto on Dec 5, 2009 3:02 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I’m beginning to wonder what sort of Faustian pact Cooke must have done to do the Olympics/Worlds double. Bye-bye Halfords. Bye-bye Vision 1 Racing. And now bye-bye Skyter. That woman’s starting to look like bad luck.

pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway

by fmk on Dec 8, 2009 11:06 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Tina Liebig retires after Skyter debacle

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/2449/Tina-Liebig-retires-after-Skyter-debacle.aspx

by lucybears on Dec 9, 2009 6:48 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

If you go to the original German interview

over at Radsport-News it sounds like she had already quit before the news about Skyter came through. Maybe that was another contract that the team bosses hadn’t got round to signing yet.

Enrico Muax has a nice little video from when the various times he worked with the team this year. Mostly the pictures speak for themselves.

by Monty. on Dec 9, 2009 7:22 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs