100%spectator Posted July 21, 2008 Share I think it is a poor decision for Barloworld to withdraw their sponsorship from cycling. It sends out a bad message for South African cycling. Whilst I can understand that there is a zero tolerance for doping - penalise the person who was involved in the doping not the whole team. South African cycling needs a home grown team and the South African cyclists who were riding in this team, did Barloworld proud - they put Barloworld on the map. Before this cycling team came on to the pro circuit - I never even knew who or what this company did. This is the strength of publicity that the Barloworld cycling team promoted for this business. I am not pro doping because sportsmen should win solely on their strength but how can you penalise a whole team for one person's mis-beahviour - its like sacking a whole company because someone has done soemthing wrong.My message to Barloworld - Your impulsive decision in pulling your sponsorship from pro cycling, has not only let the team down and costs 45 people their jobs but you have let South Africans like myself down as well. For every action their is a reaction and I am sure you will feel the full might of not having this powerful cycling team promoting your name.To the rest of the peleton, I hope a worthy South African sponsor will step in and reap the huge benefits that Barloworld have had the priveledge of getting from you all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tumbleweed Posted July 21, 2008 Share do you have - or are you related to somebody - with some interest in this topic? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fandacious Posted July 21, 2008 Share Before this cycling team came on to the pro circuit - I never even knew who or what this company did. Are you serious? Have you never seen a bulldozer? road scraper? mccarthy car dealership? Anyways, I agree with them. Why would they want to be associated with drug abuse? SDV have withdrawn their sponsorship as well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rock Posted July 21, 2008 Share I think we need more sponsors to pull out - end this charade once and for all - banish all road cycling for ever btw Barlo are still going to pay all 45 people for this and next year.......just like T-Mobile did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiasm Posted July 21, 2008 Share Barloworld do not only exist in South Africa. If they do not end their association with a team that gets caught doping, their reputation will be unfairly tarnished so it makes good business sense to end the relationship now.As you are new to this forum, I sugguest you take a look at some prior posts on this issue, particularly written this past weekend. There is further news to come about this teamfiasm2008-07-21 02:10:31 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bateleur1 Posted July 21, 2008 Share It will propably be the only way that they "might" clean up the sport to some extend. To ensure your sponsorship, you will need to catch the oaks before the race directors do. So this means team management needs to clean up their houses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PPWTF Posted July 21, 2008 Share wake up and smell the coffee....... who wants to be directly or indirectly associated with doping!? If you are a dreamer who believes it will never happen to you, then you can be sure your dream will turn into a nightmare. Sponsoring professional sport is a hazardous business in todays climate. Fact. Some will feel the risks worthwhile, others not. I can totally understand why BW decided to turn tail and run. Why should anyone who funds anything put up with such negative publicity in return for their envolvement. SD did the same, T Mobile and Phonak have gone.... these are tough times and they're only gonna get tougher by the look of things Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNT1 Posted July 21, 2008 Share OMG... why don't you tell us you're a journalist again... I don't think we quite caught that part... Get over yourself already... Oh, and we don't care what you are seasoned with.... TNT12008-07-21 02:22:07 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christie Posted July 21, 2008 Share I think it is a poor decision for Barloworld to withdraw their sponsorship from cycling. It sends out a bad message for South African cycling. Whilst I can understand that there is a zero tolerance for doping - penalise the person who was involved in the doping not the whole team...... I think it sends out the right message - doping is bad for the sponsor's corporate image. I do not belivie the blame should be laid at one rider - how did his room mate not know? How did the rest of the team not know? My message to Barloworld - Your impulsive decision in pulling your sponsorship from pro cycling' date=' has not only let the team down and costs 45 people their jobs but you have let South Africans like myself down as well. For every action their is a reaction and I am sure you will feel the full might of not having this powerful cycling team promoting your name.[/quote']I dont think the descision was impulsive at all. It was a financial one. We make X amount of money from the team. It costs us Y amount of money to sponsor. Bad publicity costs us Z amount of money. Lots of other corporates looked at their numbers and came to the same descision before: Phonak, Festina, Liberty Seguros, T-Mobile Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tumbleweed Posted July 21, 2008 Share Just like your opinion sweetie!!! welcome to the hub. please apologise. As a journo and a public relations person - I think it is a premature decision. the two are mutually exclusive. linnega2008-07-21 02:38:00 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiasm Posted July 21, 2008 Share Just like your ******opinion sweetie!!! As a journo and a public relations person - I think it is a premature decision. As for doping' date=' I don't agree with it no ANY more than anyone else does but let's face it - can you control what your riding partner is doing - NO?!!! So why should a whole peleton gets penalised for some idiot who makes the decision to go and dope.? I think the damage control that these companies are doing pulling out of their sponsorships is enoromous and soon no one will want to sponsor cycling - including local races!!! mmmm let me think - nah never knew what Barloworld did before they sponsored cycling and mmm that is from a seasoned journalist - shocking isn't it but now I do know who they are through cycling. The power of a PR!!![/quote'] it's not a whole peleton but one team, in this instance. you might be a journalist but are you a cyclist? No, just a spectator who knows 0%! linnega2008-07-21 02:38:22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hog_ Posted July 21, 2008 Share I think they made the right decision. The team is (was) called Barloworld. That is a direct reflection on the company. How would you like your company's name in all the sporting headlines connected to doping? I think they should sue the idiots for tarnishing their reputation. Who in their right mind wants to sponsor a team that cheats? Maybe a pharmaceutical company.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNT1 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Who in their right mind wants to sponsor a team that cheats? Astana, US Postal, Festina, T-Mobile, CSC, the list is very long... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bateleur1 Posted July 21, 2008 Share mmmm let me think - nah never knew what Barloworld did before they sponsored cycling and mmm that is from a seasoned journalist - shocking isn't it but now I do know who they are through cycling. The power of a PR!!! As you say, the power of PR. Does Barloworld want to be remembered as company sponsoring good sportmanship or as a company which supported drugs in sport? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johan Bornman Posted July 21, 2008 Share cut cut cut cut.... As a journo and a public relations person Surely that is the oxymoron of the week' date=' even it's still just Monday? mmmm let me think - nah never knew what Barloworld did before they sponsored cycling and mmm that is from a seasoned journalist - shocking isn't it but now I do know who they are through cycling. The power of a PR!!! In my book, that's the power of advertising, sponsorship and merchandising. PR is a very small part of this equation. However, I agree that shutting the gate after the horse has bolted is a bad decision. Getting into cycling sponsorship is something you do with eyes wide open. You know there is going to be a drug scandal and how you handle it is more important than whether the event happened or not. I questioned Barloworld's motives right from the start and I won't be surprised if there is an executive in that company somewhere with a very, very personal interest in cycling and Team Barloworld is an extension of his ego. It certainly isn't the best marketing ploy for the problem. However, now that they're in it, they should stay in it. Dealing with a druggie on the squad is easy - you push him out, you condemn his actions and you promote your stars (and pray that they're still clean). People won't remember Barloworld for drug abuse, they'll remember it for the cycling team. I also agree with you that the exercise was largely positive from an awareness point of view but I didn't see any follow-through. For instance, do you know that Plascon is a Barloworld company? Or Subaru? Or.... or. The only ones you may know about are the ones on Robbie Hunter's shoulders - Avis, I think. I think that's where the marketing was flawed. The campaign wasn't rounded enough and certainly not long enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PPWTF Posted July 21, 2008 Share You are right - professional sport is reaching a tipping point... sponsors in are thinking twice about what they are aligning and associating themselves with, not just in cycling., and not just at the elite level. Look at the 'sponsorship' deal that Coca Cola had with American high schools. At the time of signing the schools nation wide where cock a hoop at the the fact the biggest name in soft drinks was giving significant sums of money, in return for unfetter access... 10 plus years latter and with major dietary issues the topic of daily conversation, the State of California effectively directly interviews to end this association. A deal seen as heaven sent was now as sour as fresh squeezed lemon juice... The risk to health was to great, the association to negative. Now that's soft drink and kids with diabetes.... here in the professional sports arena you have Marion Jones in jail, Tim Montgomery doing time for Heroin smuggling, the FBI investigating the Balco case.... and you think getting out as BW and SD have done is premature and unjust - that they got their brand exposure but are turning tail and running at the first sign of trouble..... I've tried to make an articulate counter argument to your riposte... Understand that you are not the only 'professional' on the hub, that your view is interesting, but that snide comments do nothing to enhance the debit, and that 'wake up and smell the coffee' was constructive, as you are clearly reading from a different page than most observers of sport and it's associated ills in the modern arena. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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