The confirmation of the broadcaster Sky’s conscious uncoupling from British Cycling, its partner of seven years, confirms what has been widely expected for many months: the deal will end in 2016 after spanning two Olympiads, having been announced just before the Beijing Games.
The uncoupling was “amicable”, with “great mutual affection” on either side, which is hardly surprising as the deal has been of great benefit to both parties. British Cycling has grown massively over the period in which Sky has been involved, with the WorldTour Team Sky spearheading the increase in the sport’s profile at the top of the sporting ladder, and Sky Rides – joint ventures between Sky, the governing body and local authorities – boosting participation at the grassroots.
Sky, for their part, have enjoyed the immense profile benefits which follow when a backer comes in relatively early in the game. In Britain, cycling was not quite mature as a sport when the Murdoch money arrived; it is certainly mature now. One theory was that Sky the broadcaster wanted to sweeten its image by linking up with British Cycling and its riders; given the way that Team Sky continue to function as the Marmite team of professional cycling, that was probably over-optimistic.
Intriguingly, the television company will continue to back the elite end of the sport through Team Sky and Team Wiggins – which some suggest will change into the feeder team for the WorldTour squad, unless they finds their own large‑scale cash backer in 2016. Which leads to the obvious question: where does the uncoupling leave the governing body? Since the arrival of Sky in July 2008, British Cycling, with Dave Brailsford the performance director, expanded rapidly – on the back of two hugely successful Olympic Games – swelling from about 60 employees to over 250, to the extent that it now occupies a large new office in the Manchester velodrome.
Sky’s sponsorship amounts to an estimated annual £2.5m in cash terms, or £10m per four-year funding cycle, plus further support for other items such as the popular Sky Rides and administration and marketing. It is a significant amount but the bulk of British Cycling’s budget comes from the National Lottery via its Sport England grant and the Olympic team funding, which together amount to over £60m per four-year funding cycle.
Although it is only responsible for a relatively small proportion of British Cycling’s cash income, the formal end of the Sky deal is a respectable chunk of money which the governing body now has to seek in its own right, albeit Sky have said they will assist. This is not a new process, as in the knowledge that Sky would be unlikely to renew, British Cycling has been seeking a new backer for a while. Cycling is popular, and high profile, but big money does not follow automatically, as the experience of Tour of Britain organisers Sweetspot in gaining backing for the Women’s Tour last year demonstrates.
Sky’s departurewill sharpen minds but is not a sign of impending doom. What it does do is to make the Olympic team’s results in Rio far more significant, because they will impact on funding for the next four-year cycle beginning in 2017. In 2014 the team met their milestone target of six to eight world championship medals in able-bodied sports; this year, with only three medals at the world track championships and no chance of Sir Bradley Wiggins landing a gold medal at the world road titles, landing half a dozen looks unlikely.
The best indication of how British Cycling will hold up in Rio will not come until next year’s world track championships in London but what the governing body wants to avoid is a nightmare double-whammy where a replacement backer for Sky does not appear, or is dilatory in signing the deal, and the team miss their Rio target, resulting in a more substantial loss of funds.
“This is a lasting legacy,” said Sky’s Jeremy Darroch on Wednesday; it is to be hoped that that is the case, but just how lasting – and in what form – will depend on whether British Cycling draws in a new backer, and whether the Olympic head Shane Sutton gets his team to perform in Rio. Both are works in progress; if either flops, the Sky years could come to seem like a golden age.
