Interesting. I guess I never really thought about team structure. US stick and ball sports are relying more and more on business sponsorships, but it's certainly only part of the equation. I guess car racing is heavily sponsorship driven, but frankly, at all but the highest levels, its rich driver and/or benefactor driven (pun intended).
In the late '80's maybe, in the US they tried a city team based criterium competition league. It flopped, but that's obviously a different story. I know nothing about soccer/football. I know they are referred to as "clubs", but are obviously sponsored as well. Is this their idea?
There's never going to be tickets to sell, but I wonder what kind of TV money is involved in cycling? Also, I suppose, it's not like there's just two teams, and one team has a local market they can advertise to.
Nick |