Sierra Nevada Sponsorship Over?

[drbob]

:confused: :confused: I have not read an announcement, but in the new Velonews, Eddie Merckx is a listed sponsor.....I did not see Serotta. What happened?

[Bill Bove]

Yeah, let's see if the Eddy Merckx forum ponies up the cash to sponser the team this year :p :D :p :D

[Johny]

I did not see Serotta. What happened?

Meivici...too expensive to make

[Dr. Doofus]

we won't know why until someone who really knows says so

until then its just bullcrap

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . end their sponsorship of particular teams all the time. Any smart bikemaker--which certainly describes Ben--takes stock of what benefit they have gotten out of sponsoring a team and paying th substantial sums of money and product it takes to do so. For Serotta to make such a business decision would not surprise me at all. A reluctance to comment officially would also not surprise me at all. For Trek, Cannondale to sponsor a team would be gum money. It would most definitely not be gum money to a smaller manufacturer like Serotta.

That's the way it goes . . .

BBDave

[Hysbrian]

It would most definitely not be gum money to a smaller manufacturer like Serotta.BBDave

The way I see it there would be less $$ involved with a sponsorship of a smaller team and more physical product. Of course there is the cost of creating the product for the team, and that "lost" time does have a $ value. I would be hard pressed to believe that Serotta dropped SN because it was too costly for them.

[LegendRider]

The way I see it there would be less $$ involved with a sponsorship of a smaller team and more physical product. Of course there is the cost of creating the product for the team, and that "lost" time does have a $ value. I would be hard pressed to believe that Serotta dropped SN because it was too costly for them.

The true cost of sponsoring the team is the opportunity cost (i.e. value of the foregone alternative). Serotta could have sold the bikes it made for the team. If each rider (10 or 12?) got an Ottrott and a Legend or CDA, that's serious money for an operation of Serotta's size. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the decision to end sponsorship was an economic one.

[jerk]

The true cost of sponsoring the team is the opportunity cost (i.e. value of the foregone alternative). Serotta could have sold the bikes it made for the team. If each rider (10 or 12?) got an Ottrott and a Legend or CDA, that's serious money for an operation of Serotta's size. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the decision to end sponsorship was an economic one.


in almost all cases the team retains ownership of the bikes at the end of the season. they usually sell them. sponsoring a continental team wit equipment is not cheap.

jerk

[e-RICHIE]

It wouldn't surprise me at all if the decision to end sponsorship was an economic one.


it always is.
on both sides.

[OldDog]

I think Johnny has it right. A bike company needs to lay out it's best model for a pro team and a Meivici is way too much to dole out a dozen or more. Offering a team a Ottrott or Legend, as great as they may be, would be undermining the Meivici.


Maybe now I can take my stack of Serotta Bannana stickers to ebay to fund my retirement?

[dave thompson]

..........Maybe now I can take my stack of Serotta Bannana stickers to ebay to fund my retirement?
Sure. They're collectors items now.

[OldDog]

Sure. They're collectors items now.


Accepting offers starting at say, $500 for the small ones or $1K for the big ones. Or maybe a Legend for the whole stack?

:banana: :banana: :banana:
:banana: :banana: :banana:
:banana: :banana: :banana:

[Kevan]

and to think I wasted all of my banana stickers by writing over them "For good time call Sandy!" and stuck them to stall walls in the restrooms of train and bus terminals everywhere.

[ergott]

I'm sure the guys at Serotta have their hands full filling the orders for paying customers. I talked with them before the Seirra days and they explained just how much of a demand a sponsorship would be. Every team member gets at least 1 bike and there have to be at least a few backups plus TT machines. That's a lot of bikes!

Now that they are ramping up for the Meivici they need to commit to real sales, not the 20-30 frames a team would need. I don't know if the Mevici production can be streamlined or bumped up without sacrificing the quality, but if they can, you might see a sponsorship in the future (my opinion). The Sierra team bike proved to some people that the Ottrott is not a Sunday club bike by design (like some of us already knew)!