Annondale-Drapac, a popular American cycling team, recently team owner Jonathan Vaughters said they had suffered a major blow – a spate of good 2018 season sponsorship. According to Business Insider, Waters said that the team will have a $7 million vacancy next year. If there is no new sponsors or financial support next week, the team will have to stop playing. The team is currently participating in the Cycling Spanish cycling race and will end the season as planned, but the situation next year will be confusing. The team's riders are likely to have no teams in the 2018 season, and team employees may not have jobs. Waters said that after the weekend, the riders will no longer be bound by the contract and can join other teams. However, he said he still hopes to have capital inflows. "If there are companies or individuals who can give aid next week, then they will save the only team that sends Americans to the Tour de France," said Waters. "Otherwise, this Christmas, Slipstream Sports The company will no longer exist." Slipstream Sports is the parent company of the Cannondale-Drapac team, a sports management holding company. Doug Ellis, a private investor from New York, is the owner of Slipstream. Cannondale is an American bicycle manufacturer and Drapac is an Australian-American joint venture real estate company. Ellis and Waters founded Slipstream in 2005 in an effort to create a "clean team," promising not to use any drugs, and trying to compete on the highest stage in the industry. Cannondale-Drapac is the only team that has an American rider in the Tour de France this year. "We've all said it well. We have an agreement. I thought it was finalized," Waters said on the phone. He was in Colorado, and Cannondale-Drapac was there. "We're already talking about the uniform. The design and the style of the bus. But there is always such an agreement: if the board can not reach an agreement, the agreement can be terminated. We all know that the risk is there. In the end they did not reach an agreement." This news shocked the bicycle industry. Not only is Cannondale-Drapac one of the most popular teams in the bicycle field, but it has star players such as Taylor Phinney and Rigoberto Urán, and this tour wins in the Tour de France. The next key stage, with a total score of second, is second only to Chris Froome in less than a minute, and is regarded as the team's best Tour de France performance after July. Cannondale-Drapac has performed well in California and Italy, and has also won the podium at Paris-Roubaix. During the Tour de France, Cannondale-Drapac announced that it had finalized a new sponsorship agreement with Othman’s digital media company Oath. Waters also told Business Insider that it had an advantage in sponsorship and was optimistic about finally reaching an agreement with a certain party. . In May, Waters wrote a column arguing that professional cycling is the best sponsorship area that big brands have overlooked. Cannondale-Drapac is now known as the "Moneyball" team in the bicycle field. The team’s annual budget is only US$15 million, which is one-third of Sky’s budget for Frum (UK riders) team. This also means that Waters must discover potential newcomers and some underestimated riders. Of course, he must also be an affordable rider who can win the game. Ulan was the only player in the team who participated in the Tour de France this year and was the only millionaire. He recently signed a three-year contract with the team. But now, for him and the other riders, the future is not clear. According to a report by Cycling Weekly on Sunday, sources said that the last juncture to withdraw from the sponsorship agreement with Cannondale-Drapac was the online betting company Unibet. Unibet had previously sponsored a cycling team (coincidentally, this team was Ulan's first team to come to Europe in 2007 and this year Ellis and Waters created the Slipstream team). ▲ In July of this year, after three weeks of competition, Ulan (left) ranked second behind Chris Froom (right) with a difference of 54 seconds. At the Tour de France, there was no comparison. Lan is closer to Froome. "This is not a smoke bomb - we have only ten days." “But 10 million dollars is not enough for the team's operation,†Waters said. “Our operating expenses are almost 4 million US dollars, and the rider’s salary is 10 million US dollars. We need at least 15 million US dollars or 16 million US dollars to barely support.†That $5 million is needed, which is the cheapest name for the naming rights in the bicycle field. We need this money, but it's lost." "This is not a smoke bomb - we have only ten days from today," Waters said on Friday. "Either continue or give up. It's not that we need a $7 million check tomorrow. I'm Say we can still stick to the end of the year, but we can't maintain anything next year." "People asked me: 'You can seek sponsorship until November, can you?' But this is not fair to the rider. I can't limit all of them, and then tell them in November after they get a zero. :'I'm sorry guys, you were relieved.' All the teams have stabilized in November. How do they join the new team? So for the sake of the riders, I have to decide as soon as possible." The team stated on the website on the weekend that it will establish a public fundraising campaign to make the last fight for the 2018 season. On Monday, Waters told Business Insider on a follow-up phone call that the financial and spiritual support provided by the fundraising event had made him overjoyed. When asked if the team could continue to operate as an intercontinental team at a level lower than the World Tour (highest level), Waters gave a negative answer because the team was sponsored by the World Tour license. "If it's a French team, they can do this and they will be invited to participate in the Tour de France," he said. "Like the team that calls Vital - their budget is almost $8 million. But they only care about one thing. You don't need to worry about the two races at the same time. They won't be racing teams, but they can still participate in the Tour de France because they come from France." "But if it's an intercontinental team from the United States, I think it would be very difficult to get an invitation from the Tour de France. Of course, players like Ulan still have this possibility, but it's only possible. But we can't count on this possibility. The sponsors will not agree what may not be possible." Waters said: "This is totally unreasonable. We rode out our best Tour de France. Now we really need someone to stand up." Below is an excerpt of the email that Waters sent on Friday. Everyone: Sorry for sending so many emails, but you all helped Slipstream Sports (Cannondale-Drapac team) or considered helping us at some point. Thank you for your support and helped us through the past decade. Unfortunately, I have some bad news for the team to tell everyone. This morning we received a notice that we should become partners of the sponsors. Due to the opposition of the board of directors, they will not be able to fulfill the agreement with us. Therefore, we cannot reach the sponsorship right of the 2018 season with them. Considering that we have achieved the second best result in the Tour de France and won some stages in the Tour de France and Tour de l'Italie, losing sponsorship is very frustrating. Failure to obtain title sponsorship means that the team will no longer be able to operate in the 2018 season and beyond. If the status quo does not improve, we will have to give up Slipstream Sports. Many of you have helped us fight against the use of stimulants and have won rights for athletes who do not use banned drugs. For you, the condition of the team is undoubtedly a bad news. We are a fleet of indexed bio passports. We are the first team to promote open and transparent dialogue to prevent banned drugs. We are the first team to treat this topic frankly. And now we are in danger. In the past ten years, despite the continuous decrease in the total salary of our riders and the increasing financial expenses, we can continue to challenge and even defeat the fleet with a budget of US$40 million. We have been, and are proud to, overcome enormous financial difficulties, and from time to time have demonstrated that morale is sometimes more important than budget. The 2017 season is our best season. We are so close to winning the world's biggest game, even though our opponent is an invincible rider. Unfortunately, now is our last chance. This is our battle for survival. If you have any method or know that anyone can give us financial support, we are ready to continue to find the next unexpected Tour de France winner. The email has an attachment that you can send to anyone who is interested. This is the last ten days, and maybe ten days later we will be dissolved forever. Thank you for all you have done. Thank you for reading this letter. Thank you for your help at this last minute. Statement: [Articles and pictures transferred from the Internet, the copyright belongs to the author, this point of view does not represent the views of this platform. If you feel infringing, please contact us to delete it. This website does not assume any legal responsibility. Real Leather Steering Wheel,Artificial Leather Steering Wheel,Real Leather Car Steering Wheel,100% Real Leather Steering Wheel Ruian Jia Beir Auto Parts Co.,Ltd. , https://www.jbrseat.com
Waters said the team has locked in $10 million for next year. About one-third of this tens of millions of dollars came from Cannondale, 1/3 from Drapac, 1/3 from Oath, and some scattered amounts of $1 million.