Start of the Tour de France: The business with the “Mythos Tour”

The Tour de France starts today – the race will be followed worldwide for three weeks. A lot can be earned with the “Mythos Tour” – but as an economic factor it lags far behind football.

Year after year, the toughest bike race in the world tells stories about victory and defeat for three weeks. The pressure the riders are under is immense: a weak day, a crash that is not their fault, a tactical error in a crisis situation – all of this can ruin the hard work of many days. In view of this drama, one speaks of the “Myth Tour de France”. This myth is part of the business model, it is the means to sell the product.

For Ralph Denk, founder and team manager of the German tour team “BORA – hansgrohe”, the “myth” has to do with decades of tradition: “The story of how it came about is exciting: A newspaper invents a bicycle race to increase circulation drift,” he told tagesschau.de. The first tour took place in 1903, initiated by a sports newspaper called “L’Auto” of all things. This turned into a success story lasting almost 120 years, and the business idea has remained. The tour has been organized by the “Amaury Sport Organisation” (ASO) since 1947. It belongs to the French family group Amaury, which also publishes the sports newspaper “L’Equipe”.

Dramas about winners and losers

Newspapers need stories. The tour produces big and small stories about the “heroes of the country road” for three weeks. There are hundreds, and they all have their charm, says Denk. There are exciting sporting duels that can be told, often with a tragic outcome.

The Tour of 1989 remains unforgotten, in which the two-time French Tour winner Laurent Fignon in the leader’s yellow jersey lost by eight seconds in a time trial to US competitor Greg LeMond on the final day in Paris. Le Mond, himself a 1986 Tour winner, made a comeback in 1989 after a serious hunting accident with dozens of shotgun pellets lodged in his body. Dramatic stories like this one about winners and losers are in “L’Equipe” the next day, are broadcast on television or can be followed via online media.

attention and media presence

Even the doping scandals of the past few years have not harmed the tour: “At the peak of interest a few years ago, there was a downturn when it became known that doping was practically widespread. But sports fans in particular quickly forget and the fascination of the sport has not changed as a result, So interest is also increasing again,” says Professor Sebastian Uhrich from the Institute for Sports Economics and Sports Management at the German Sports University in Cologne tagesschau.de. Ultimately, scandals would also make up part of the fascination.

“The products that are sold through the tour are attention and media presence,” explains the sports economist. “It’s those two factors that make them so attractive to advertisers.” According to Denk, in terms of media reach, it is the largest annual sporting event of the year.

The three pillars of marketing

Who is still waiting for the newspaper in the morning? Nevertheless, the ASO earns its money with the stories of the tour. Marketing rests on three pillars, explains Uhrich: “On the one hand, there is the income from the advertising industry and from sponsors. Then there are the broadcasting rights, which are sold to media companies,” says the sports economist. This is essentially the same for all sporting events. “A special feature of the tour, however, is the income generated by the destinations, because the cities have to pay to become a stage destination.”

Around 60 percent of ASO’s income comes from TV broadcasting rights. Last year, the race was broadcast by 100 TV channels in 190 countries, with 60 channels reporting live. The organizers receive additional income from advertising and sponsors. According to estimates, this share of sales is 30 to 40 percent. The cities will do the rest.

Football is much more lucrative

Transparent figures about what the ASO generates annually with the tour cannot be obtained. The estimates of the past few years are in the range of 150 to 200 million euros. It’s probably more now. Compared to the turnover that Fifa is likely to make this year from the football World Cup in Qatar, the Tour de France is only a medium-sized sporting event. Here, too, one has to rely on estimates: This year, Fifa’s income is likely to be around seven billion dollars. Last year 2021, i.e. without the World Cup, it was 766 million.

International football leagues are also significantly more lucrative for the organizers. The Premier League, the richest league in the world, sold the TV rights for the period 2022 to 2025 for more than five billion euros. If you draw a comparison with the Bundesliga, which can be marketed all year round, it is understandable why the sums generated by TV rights and sponsorship are much higher there, says Uhrich. “The tour doesn’t generate that lasting interest, so it’s not quite as interesting as a product.”

The Tour dominates the economics of cycling

Nevertheless, the cycle race is a profitable business for sponsors and the professional teams: “In terms of media reach, it achieves good results compared to other sports,” explains team manager Denk. The tour is therefore by far the most important event of the year for the teams. She dominates cycling, so every sponsor and rider wants to be there. BORA-hansgrohe achieves between 60 and 70 percent of the annual advertising value on the tour. That also depends on the sporting successes, adds the team manager. If the team or a driver is successful, it can also be over 80 percent.

“The business model of cycling is rock solid,” says the former cyclist. A cycling team is financed by around 90 percent through sponsorship. Merchandising, such as selling shirts, is much more difficult than in football: The brand identity is only temporary, explains the manager.

“Still room for improvement”

The average annual budget of a team that consists not only of drivers but also of logistics, mechanics and medical attendants is 18 million euros. Denk does not reveal his budget. According to media reports, the budget of what is currently probably the most expensive British cycling team, the Ineos Grenadier, is over 50 million euros. “We still have room for improvement,” Denk doesn’t want to say more about it.

The clear difference in the sums that are achieved in football, for example, through sponsors and TV rights, has an impact on salaries. On average, professional cyclists earn 350,000 euros a year. With a salary that is said to be around six million euros, the two-time tour winner and defending champion Tadej Pogačar is the best-paid professional.

The salary is determined by the market

The Spanish daily newspaper “El Mundo” published in 2021 what Lionel Messi is said to have earned in four seasons at FC Barcelona from 2017 to 2021. The amount is more than 550 million euros. That should be enough to finance the annual budgets of the 22 teams participating in the tour.

A look at the list of prize money also shows that it is hardly the possible wealth that lures the drivers to France to face the rigors of the race. In 2022, almost 2.3 million euros will be paid out, the winner will receive 500,000 euros. At the tennis tournament in Wimbledon, the participants are happy about around 46 million euros in prize money. Manager Denk takes a sporting view: “The market decides the salary. In other sports, athletes earn more, not because they are better athletes, but because more people watch it on TV and more merchandise is sold.”

“The Great Loop”

Denk would like a podium finish in Paris and a stage win for his team; also exciting sport and a tour that will only be decided on the last stages. That’s good for the viewers, who will be cheering for three weeks. And it’s good for reach, media attention and exposure from an economic perspective. Because a tight and dramatic outcome nourishes and renews the Tour myth, so that people remember the race decades later – like the story when Laurent Fignon lost the Tour in 1989 after 3285 km on the last meters of the Champs-Élysées .