Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme offered words of support for the concept of budget caps within the WorldTour this week at a meeting of the Association Internationale des Organisateurs de Courses Cyclistes (AIOCC), the organisation of race promoters.
An AIOCC press release about its annual general meeting, held Friday, included a section quoting Prudhomme, who is also the organisation’s president; among topics like safety and anti-doping, he spoke favorably about proposals to level the playing field. “As with our society, the gap is widening between the most well-financed teams and those who fear for their future,” the Tour director said. “The overwhelming financial superiority of some teams compared to the others does not lead us towards an ever more attractive cycling spectacle.”
This comes after Escape Collective broke the news that it could be as soon as 2026 that some form of team budget cap or financial fairness initiative could be introduced. The rationale behind the idea is to create a more level playing field where so-called super teams cannot simply buy up all of the talent. The current system, according to proponents of a cap, allows a few select teams to flourish whilst others struggle to gain noteworthy results.
Escape’s reporting suggested that a meeting of key stakeholders this fall resulted in a decision to explore the concept, but it was not entirely clear which stakeholders were for or against the idea in principle. Prudhomme, and by extension ASO, throwing its weight behind a cap is significant.
Who’s for and who’s against?
The statement from Prudhomme backs up previous reporting that suggested that ASO viewed the proposal favourably. Thus sets the stage for a showdown: The UCI and major race organisers, including ASO, are for the plan, while representatives from teams have mostly come out against or said they will wait for more details.
Having support from the ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation) strengthens the UCI’s position on team budget caps. The organisation behind the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and the Critérium du Dauphiné officially supporting the push from the UCI strengthens the likelihood that we will see budget caps come in the future.
Shortly after the initial news broke, Visma-Lease A Bike team manager Richard Plugge expressed his opposition to the concept of a budget cap. With Visma-Lease A Bike reportedly carrying one of the biggest budgets in the WorldTour, a budget cap would most likely negatively impact the team. In an exclusive interview with Escape, Plugge made the case that sports that feature a budget cap also have a centralised income, and that pro cycling’s current financial model is not a good match for a cap as proposed by the UCI.
Arguments in favor of budget caps in cycling center on promoting competitive balance. As seen with teams like UAE Team Emirates, a lack of spending limitations can lead to a small number of wealthy teams dominating the sport. A budget cap would theoretically create parity by preventing teams from vastly outspending their rivals. The idea is that this would lead to closer racing and more excitement for fans, a concept directly referenced by Prudhomme.
However, there are also several challenges associated with implementing budget caps in cycling. Unlike the closed leagues in North American sports, road racing has a more complex structure, with teams registered across multiple countries and subject to varying tax laws. This makes it difficult to establish and enforce a uniform budget cap that accommodates these disparities. Those leagues also balance budget caps with centralized broadcast rights fees and robust revenue-sharing, something which the ASO, historically, has strongly resisted.
Additionally, cycling teams are heavily reliant on sponsorships, and accounting for rider compensation that comes from external sponsors could prove difficult. Enforcing such a change in cycling could be problematic given the sport’s inherent financial instability and the prevalence of teams operating on the brink of collapse.
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