Cycling: Eleven UCI World Tour teams have come together and founded a joint organization with Velon, which on the one hand should make the teams themselves less dependent on sponsorship money and on the other should make the sport more interesting again for the fans.
The primary goal of Velon is to put cycling on a stable economic foundation for the future, which does not only depend on the financiers from the ranks of sponsors. But the fans should also benefit from this new organization, because in order to achieve the ambitious goal of more financial independence, cycling should be made more exciting again and open to new technologies such as helmet cameras. A small foretaste, for example, was the video footage of Orica-GreenEDGE during the Tour de France, which has meanwhile been viewed more than 100.000 times on YouTube.
In addition, the teams want to be actively involved in designing the race calendar in order to keep the excitement high throughout the season and thus attract more fans again. Whether it's pushing new technologies or planning the race calendar - the merger under the Velon umbrella means that the teams have a significantly stronger negotiating position vis-à-vis race organizers, sponsors and other parties involved.
The founding members of the organization are Belkin Pro Cycling, BMC Racing Team, Garmin-Sharp, Lampre-Merida, Lotto-Belisol, Omega Pharma - Quick-Step, Orica-GreenEDGE, Team Giant-Shimano, Team Sky, Tinkoff-Saxo and Trek Factory Racing. But the doors are by no means closed to new members: teams that pursue similar goals can join Velon or work together on individual projects.
Velon's new CEO, Graham Bartlett, summed up the organization as follows: “The existing sponsor-only business model is a risk for all teams. It's up to us to reshape the funding, with the fans at the core. With new technologies, we can bring a breath of fresh air back into the sport, make the races even more exciting and bring the fans right into the heart of the action. We will work together to generate new revenue for the teams.”