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news
HSBC sign (source HSBC.com).jpgHSBC reportedly replacing Sky as British Cycling sponsor
HSBC will be named the new sponsor of British Cycling this weekend, according to Mail Online, which says the announcement that the bank will be replacing Sky coinciding with the first HSBC UK BikeFest in Birmingham on Sunday.
Sky and British Cycling announced last year that their eight-year partnership, which coincided with the country’s track cyclists dominating the medals table at the Beijing, London and Rio Olympics, would finish at the end of 2016.
> Sky to end eight-year partnership with British Cycling
That decision does not affect Team Sky, which the broadcaster continues to sponsor. It is believed that the ending of the partnership was due to Sky making budget cuts due to the £4.2 billion it is paying for the rights to show Premier League football over the next three years.
HSBC, which bills itself as “the world’s local bank,” sponsors a number of golf events worldwide, the biggest being the HSBC World Golf Champions tournament in Shanghai, and in rugby is sponsor of the Hong Kong Sevens and the Sevens World Series.
Away from elite sport, one of the most visible aspects of Sky’s sponsorship of British Cycling has been the Sky Ride events that see cyclists young and old take to the car-free streets of cities throughout Britain each summer.
Those mass participation rides – the final one was in York last Sunday, with thousands of cyclists participating – seem set to be rebranded as HSBC UK BikeFest, the title of this weekend’s event in Birmingham.
Taking place on Sunday 18 September, it is being held in partnership with Birmingham Cycle Revolution.
Running from 9am-4pm, the event will include a 2-kilometre traffic-free circuit centred on the city’s Victoria Square.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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14 comments
its not moaning at all,its that HSBC have a pretty rotten reputation as a business and a high street bank, they are the Sports Direct of the finance world, and if you had ever had the misfortunte to deal with them youd not want them anywhere near British Cycling.
Sky might not have been everyones cup of tea, but they at least had & demonstrated passion for the sport, HSBC probably made the decision based on staring at a spreadsheet, and then billed Microsoft for calculating their numbers.
I just hope BC dont start junk mailing members with, would you like a new mortgage ?
Nearly lost my coffee at "the £4.2 billion it is paying for the rights to show Premier League football over the next three years". Christ alive. There was me debating whether to splash out an extra tenner for some fancy bar tape just now online.
Who cares who the sponsor is?
It's just business.
C'mon folks stop the moaning. A major bank is sponsoring our, not long ago, pretty minority sport and helping fund recrational events plus the National team to continue to win golds as they did this year. Great news all around and as for comparing their issues to Rupert Murdoch I know who I'd rather trust in a dark alleyway!
It's not moaning but a genuine concern that the sponsorship of our sport seems to be available to the highest bidder regardless of how they act.
The professional side of cycling is still widely viewed as having problems with truthfulness, yet British Cycling has chosen to align itself with an organisation that time and again has engaged in illegal and immoral behaviour. I think this sends a terrible message and tarnishes the governing body of our sport.
I suggest you do a little research in to how this organisation behaves and then reassess if the gold medals and recreational events are really worth their dirty money.
HSBC, which bills itself as “the world’s local bank,” back in the old days they were called the Midland Bank and they were the first bank to send the jobs to Indian call centres, lets just hope they dont suggest sending the British Cycling juniors to train in the Indian traffic.
I dunno.. if they can cope with Airport Road, Bangalore in the rush hour, the pro peloton should be a piece of piss.
HSBC have helped drug cartels launder money, enabled terrorist financing, had traders imprisoned for fraud and are widely rumoured to help large scale tax evasion.
What sort of message does British cycling think it is sending by associating itself with such an organisation?
Yes, but we've all done that!
What's the world coming to when major cycling news is first released to the Mail, The Bastion of Bike-Haters?
Put these words in to a well know phrase:
Pass the sick bag.
Sky or the bankers both as corrupt as each other but in different ways.
If true, it is a sign of how far the sport of cycling has come in this country in the past twenty-five years: from bikes made from washing machine parts to being sponsored by serial money launderers.