Protect Our Winters: Update on British Cycling and Shell

7% reduction in membership since the deal has certainly cost BC. I’m not saying that’s totally down to the deal, but there are certainly people who left because of it. It’s difficult to get those members back as well.

This is the problem that at the levels of sponsorship required (tens of millions of ££), there are very few companies willing and able to commit that sort of capital. And most of them are evil in some way shape or form.

You don’t get to have that sort of profit swilling around to be generously donated without being a little bit evil. HSBC, Shell, Esso (who sponsor Belgian Cycling Federation) – they’re all scum it’s just that they’re very rich scum who happen to occasionally contribute to good things. If you don’t accept that money then there’s no-one queuing up to be an alternative. Especially not a good ethical company. Ethical companies don’t have those profits precisely because they’re ethical!

Commercial reasons around how much exposure each sponsor gets plus the fact that you’re after at least a medium term commitment (like 4 years minimum) so if you have multiple small sponsors, all with individual logos, you start getting into the territory where A, B and C have all stayed on but X, Y and Z have all pulled out so you need to completely redesign the jersey again.

bigdawgFree Member

for me it was totally down to ‘that’ deal… Sent my (racing) membership card back as soon as it was confirmed Shell would be sponsoring them and racing…

Same here. I’ve been locked in my training bunker since then, as by the time the deal ends I’ll be at least one age category older and I’m coming out fighting … 🤣

So I take it everyone who is against Shell sponsorship doesn’t use cars?

This is the problem that at the levels of sponsorship required (tens of millions of ££), there are very few companies willing and able to commit that sort of capital. And most of them are evil in some way shape or form.

I still question the ‘required’ aspect, which stems from the Days of London 2012 and the Team Sky alignment (arguably also a problematic corporate ‘partner’ IMO).

BC don’t really give a shit about much apart from olympic golds and elite competition, the muggles are really only there to fund the competitive top 1%, either with membership fees or a %age from every tank of diesel…

Shell (like all their competitors TBF) will happily use cycling to greenwash their brand.

Anyone can attend a free course, doesn’t mean they’re going to practice what they learned (or probably already knew)…

Not that I can really talk, my BC licence just auto-renewed. 🙁

Looking at the numbers purely objectively. The HSBC deal that preceded Shell was worth c.£2.5M/yr.

Its likely BC will have had to take a hit as the deal ended early, so less time to find a replacement. Let’s call it £2M.

They had a published shortfall of revenue of over £2M due to HSBC pulling out, so that gap NEEDED to be filled commercially.

If they didnt take Shell and plug that gap, would each one of the 145k BC members be happy to sign up for a minimum term of 3 years, uplifted membership fee of £14/yr on topnof current fees, with nothing extra, to keep both Shell out and the lights on?

I cant see 145k people guaranteeing that.

A lot of this goes back to the house of cards nature of cycle sport in general. There’s little in the way of direct money you can make from it other than TV rights. Most spectating is free by the roadside, the only exceptions being subsections of the sport that take place in closed arenas like MTB, CX, track etc and even then you can’t charge football or F1 levels of ticket prices.

The costs to run a National Team (via the Federation) or WorldTour team are very high, not many companies have that sort of loose change floating around so you end up with:
UAE Team Emirates / Bahrain-Victorious (human rights abuses, oil-rich)
Ineos (petrochemicals & fracking)
Shell (for BC) / Esso (for Belgium Cycling Federation)
various banks and insurance companies
Israel-PremierTech – yes I’d love to be sponsored by a country currently committing genocide, thanks for the cash
Jayco-AlUla (Al-Ula is the tourist board for the Saudi Arabian city of Al-Ula, more human rights and oil issues)

None of them are really the names that would be found in the phonebook of Good and Ethical Companies… It’s good that it’s being called out, that there’s awareness around it and that organisations like BC are having to do some damage limitation – although as mentioned above I’d rather they do away with the “brand values and alignment” nonsense and just say “well they gave us a fuckton of money, do you have any other ideas cos we’ve phoned round all the nice people and they have nothing to give”.

So I take it everyone who is against Shell sponsorship doesn’t use cars?

I think sometimes that companies like Shell operate like the mafia. They act real nice and say things like “look, we want to deal drugs on the street corner, but in exchange, we’ll spruce up the area a bit, make sure all the other violent drug dealers stay away, all you have to do is look the other way and not tell the cops, otherwise…”

You’ve no real choice, and you’re still complicit, and the mafia are still making piles of cash dealing drugs, but the alternative…

So I take it everyone who is against Shell sponsorship doesn’t use cars?

Yup an EV. No I don’t use gas and PV provides my leccy. And British Cycling should know better, it brings the sport into disrepute which isn’t good for cyclists.

Protect winter??

What a time to be alive………

I suspect they do, but given this level of sport isn’t about the sport (it is about winning) then there are very few options to get the levels of money required.

I’m absolutely not defending or backing this, but as mentioned several times, at that level, the choices for sponsors are very thin on the ground, so there is little choice on whether to take the money or not (there isn’t an option).

Proper sad state to be in but it is the same as that top level everywhere – it all costs money and medal chasing is never cheap.

I’d prefer if they didn’t have the sponsorship, but I’m aware it can’t be helped…unless another big name with better ethics and principals suddenly finds itself with a huge pile of money to support medal chasing.