Attracting sponsors into professional cycling became a harder task after 2012, according to BMC Racing team manager Jim Ochowicz.
The American recently announced that BMC had committed to the team for at least another season and that he and BMC’s owner, Andy Rihs, were actively courting third parties with the aim of adding more sponsors and backers to the team.
However, when asked if attracting new sponsors had become a tougher task since 2012, the year in which Lance Armstrong was banned for life by USADA, Ochowicz said it has.
“I’ve been doing this with 7-Eleven, then Motorola and now with BMC. It’s never a situation where you’re sure about a long term commitment from anybody. You’re going from day-to-day, and year-to-year. I’ve never had a contract for more than two years with anyone, even with 7-Eleven when they were there for 10 years. The contract was never more than a year or two.
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Daniel Benson is the Editor in Chief at both Cyclingnews.com and BikePerfect.com. Based in the UK, he has worked within cycling for almost 15 years, and he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he has reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he runs the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.