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Hyundai Bails...

blt2ride

Turbo Monkey
May 25, 2005
2,333
0
Chatsworth
It looks like Mountain Biking loses another corporate sponsor...

WISCONSIN (transcendmagazine.com) -- We just received news in that Hyundai is out of mountain biking as of this season. Word has come in that the car manufacturer, a cornerstone of more then one MTB team this past few years, has decided to stop funding the GT, Schwinn and Mongoose mountain bike teams for the 2006 season.
 

bikenweed

Turbo Monkey
Oct 21, 2004
2,432
0
Los Osos
That sucks, but hey, Hyundai's kinda suck. They don't even make a truck! Hopefully something will work out with another car manufacturer in the months to come.
 

Cant Climb

Turbo Monkey
May 9, 2004
2,683
10
.....Hyundai spends more on paper clips than they put into Mountain bike racing.....
 

bizutch

Delicate CUSTOM flower
Dec 11, 2001
15,928
24
Over your shoulder whispering
I hope GT & Mongoose saw this coming and had a contingency plan for sponsorship. This a bad, bad time of year to go floundering for cash. But at the same time, if Hyundai had waited until January, they would have ZERo chance of signing a new company.
 

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,194
4,419
The auto industry isn't doing very well if any of you cared to notice... this move probably makes sense for them.

To all the US auto-makers sponsoring DH/MTB teams, please stand up... anyone?
 

bizutch

Delicate CUSTOM flower
Dec 11, 2001
15,928
24
Over your shoulder whispering
Cant Climb said:
.....Hyundai spends more on paper clips than they put into Mountain bike racing.....
the ungrateful attitude we display towards outside marketing companies is one more reason we bail on companies.
Subaru invested in cycling years back and we all welcomed them and they've stayed with us through thick and thin. For some reason though, they are the only ones we have felt that attachment to. I wonder why that is?
We as consumers haven't rewarded any other auto manufacturer for their investments into our sport like them. VW is still making an effort to appeal to the MTB crowd and so is Honda, yet we still shoot barbs toward these companies like Hyundai.
 

Lexx D

Dirty Dozen
Mar 8, 2004
1,480
0
NY
dump said:
The auto industry isn't doing very well if any of you cared to notice...
I worked at a dealership until a few weeks ago and highly disagree with this. Some companies aren't doing well, others are picking up the slack.
 
Apr 9, 2004
516
8
Mount Carmel,PA
I dont think any company actually gets their moneys worth when sponsoring mountain biking. It is the same old thing.It is a participant sport. It is not spectator friendly, and it will never play well to a tv audience. as long as joebob consumer, cant sit on his couch drinking beer and rooting for his favorite rider big money will continue to go into other arenas. we tried with 4 cross and slolam, but the qualifiers and heats ran too long and are confusing to non participants, as far as xc, yawn ....paint drying is more exciting to watch for the average consumer. and downhill cant be seen the entire course. not to mention spectators dont want to see against the clock competition.The red bull rampage was extremely spector friendly, but it was in the middle of nowhere. This is the plain truth, I do not like it and neither do you. if somone could finally figure it out to make our belovid sport more spectator friendly all the racers could be as rich as nascar drivers!!!
 

bikenweed

Turbo Monkey
Oct 21, 2004
2,432
0
Los Osos
Subaru has advertisements (or at least had advertisements back when I read magazines) in Bike with pics of the car with bikes on the roof, bikes near by, etc. Hyundai never advertised anything in the magazines I saw, nor did they really do much besides sponsor a SMALL team. GT/Mongoose's DH squad consists of about five guys that I can think of: Bryn Atkinson, Eric Carter, Brian Schmith, Aaron Peters, and a couple others I can't think of right now. (*kicks self for repeated dome shots riding bikes) It would be nice if we could get corporate sponsors involved, but doesn't Jeep already have the KOM series? If they would kinda open their series up, or better yet, help NORBA, there would be a lot more "appreciation" involved. It's pretty complicated. We can kiss Hyundai's bootie for giving some $$$ to Mongoose/GT, or we can save our dignity, not whore ourselves out, and wait for a company that actually wants to put forth a full effort towards the sport. Things are cyclical, it will happen within the next five years.

But, how could us simple consumers show appreciation? By buying their product? I could not justify spending more than $2.50 (Red Bull is expensive these days) on a sponsor just to show appreciation when their product is not better than the competitions'.
 

Cant Climb

Turbo Monkey
May 9, 2004
2,683
10
Ford is putting money into MTB........not alot but some....

Hyundai is a couple hundred billion dollar company i think......
 

Zutroy

Turbo Monkey
Dec 9, 2004
2,443
0
Ventura,CA
It is a shame they are gone, but it happens. I'm sure Hyundai didn't feel they were getting a good return on investment. I think people tend to forget this companies are not Charities, they dump money into racing because they are trying to sell more of thier product. MTBing has lost it main stream appeal, and that's why sponsors left. Look at the perception of mountain biking in the general public, most people think of it as the crazy short were you jump off of cliffs and crash alot. Just think of how it's used in all the commercials that are out there, it's usually one of the two. Till that changes you won't see major corp, investment in racing or any area of MTB.
 

bizutch

Delicate CUSTOM flower
Dec 11, 2001
15,928
24
Over your shoulder whispering
Bottom line is...cycling isn't as big a part of our culture as it is overseas.
If it were a bigger part of our culture, then it have a bigger mainstream following. The World Cup stays successful overseas to the media b/c the public has cycling engrained in their culture for centuries.

We are a product of the automobile culture.
 

wydopen

Turbo Monkey
Jan 16, 2005
1,229
60
805
teamkranzelbike said:
and downhill cant be seen the entire course. not to mention spectators dont want to see against the clock competition.QUOTE]


cable cameras would help
 

face

Monkey
Sep 14, 2005
209
0
northern utah
dump said:
The auto industry isn't doing very well if any of you cared to notice... this move probably makes sense for them.

To all the US auto-makers sponsoring DH/MTB teams, please stand up... anyone?
jeep is a part of chrysler which is american company and they are putting money into mountain bike. i just watched a jeep dual slalom race the other day. granted they probably dont put much money into mountain biking just enough to say they are hardcore.
 

Zutroy

Turbo Monkey
Dec 9, 2004
2,443
0
Ventura,CA
bizutch said:
Bottom line is...cycling isn't as big a part of our culture as it is overseas.
If it were a bigger part of our culture, then it have a bigger mainstream following. The World Cup stays successful overseas to the media b/c the public has cycling engrained in their culture for centuries.

We are a product of the automobile culture.
Very true, although i would say even the WC is in trouble, they couldn't make the changes they wanted and pulled the series back 2 races because they couldn't get the sponsor dollars for it.
 

S.K.C.

Turbo Monkey
Feb 28, 2005
4,096
25
Pa. / North Jersey
BC Van - you out there?

So how is everything? Are you guys O.K. with sponsorship for next year? That really blows that Hyundai dropped out, but maybe you guys could get something going with Nissan or something...

...would fit in nicely with there Xterra marketing - hell they even have a guy freeriding in one of the commercials. :D
 

W4S

Turbo Monkey
Mar 2, 2004
1,282
23
Back in Hell A, b1thces
What makes you think their ad-campaign wasn't successful? I'm sure Hyundai knows what demographic they're trying to reach and developed a broad campaign to reach those people. I imagine that MTB is a medium-sized but lucrative demo and Hyundai feels they've reached that audience as best they can and they sponsored some good riders while doing it, but now will emphasize another aspect of their marketing program.
I bet we'll continue to see influence from hyundai in the future, probably just not in racing. Maybe they'll be more 'lifestyle' oriented, or maybe they'll sponsor some gnarly gen-x freerider to travel the country in his customized hyundai and write blogs on his exciting adventures. :dead:
 

blt2ride

Turbo Monkey
May 25, 2005
2,333
0
Chatsworth
Zutroy said:
It is a shame they are gone, but it happens. I'm sure Hyundai didn't feel they were getting a good return on investment. I think people tend to forget this companies are not Charities, they dump money into racing because they are trying to sell more of thier product. MTBing has lost it main stream appeal, and that's why sponsors left. Look at the perception of mountain biking in the general public, most people think of it as the crazy short were you jump off of cliffs and crash alot. Just think of how it's used in all the commercials that are out there, it's usually one of the two. Till that changes you won't see major corp, investment in racing or any area of MTB.
That's probably what it came down to--a return of Hyundai's investment. I'm sure the advertising executives had to justify spending money on a MTB team, and the "higher ups" probably felt that it was not a good place to put their money...
 

Zutroy

Turbo Monkey
Dec 9, 2004
2,443
0
Ventura,CA
blt2ride said:
That's probably what it came down to--a return of Hyundai's investment. I'm sure the advertising executives had to justify spending money on a MTB team, and the "higher ups" probably felt that it was not a good place to put their money...
Andy by happy with the RIO, it could be the were happy with the results, they could jsut have another area of interest that has a larger RIO for the money.
 

stiksandstones

Turbo Monkey
May 21, 2002
5,078
25
Orange, Ca
Cant Climb said:
.....Hyundai spends more on paper clips than they put into Mountain bike racing.....
That is a lot of paper clips, considering Hyundai paid Pacific millions of dollars over the duration of their cooperative effort...oh, and do not forget the amount of cars that were given to pacific over the years (last number I was told was 65 automobiles over the years).

The teams are going ahead full steam, albeit some cuts in pay, but like I said in another thread, we should applaud Pacific cycles efforts in racing. To carry on all they do (couple of dozen pro athletes and staff between all the brands and disciplines) is very cool. I really expected them to leave sports marketing all together once the 7 figures of Hyundai left, but they stepped up bigtime...hell I even hear they are signing World Cup and World champ Jill Kintner to GT, a little late to picking up women riders considering womens racing is 100% dead. but still cool they are signing people and not letting people go.

This is simply a natural sponsorship cycle, Hyundai has been with the program for 6 years, Toyota was with schwinn for 6 years, Volvo with Cdale for 7 I think, its just natural for companies to move marketing dollars into other avenues. This was not a decision based on bad numbers, poor return or anything negative, it was just time to move on, happens all the time.
 

blt2ride

Turbo Monkey
May 25, 2005
2,333
0
Chatsworth
stiksandstones said:
That is a lot of paper clips, considering Hyundai paid Pacific millions of dollars over the duration of their cooperative effort...oh, and do not forget the amount of cars that were given to pacific over the years (last number I was told was 65 automobiles over the years).

The teams are going ahead full steam, albeit some cuts in pay, but like I said in another thread, we should applaud Pacific cycles efforts in racing. To carry on all they do (couple of dozen pro athletes and staff between all the brands and disciplines) is very cool. I really expected them to leave sports marketing all together once the 7 figures of Hyundai left, but they stepped up bigtime...hell I even hear they are signing World Cup and World champ Jill Kintner to GT, a little late to picking up women riders considering womens racing is 100% dead. but still cool they are signing people and not letting people go.

This is simply a natural sponsorship cycle, Hyundai has been with the program for 6 years, Toyota was with schwinn for 6 years, Volvo with Cdale for 7 I think, its just natural for companies to move marketing dollars into other avenues. This was not a decision based on bad numbers, poor return or anything negative, it was just time to move on, happens all the time.
That's news about Jill Kintner. I wonder if Hyundai is going to stick with the ABA and their BMX program...
 

bizutch

Delicate CUSTOM flower
Dec 11, 2001
15,928
24
Over your shoulder whispering
Thanks for instilling the proper perspective Stik. Always the voice of reason when it comes to industry workings....now get back to sorting out panties and bras for your website....
 

BC VAN

Monkey
May 4, 2005
624
0
hyundai was/is a great sponsor.....our company(pacific....mongoose,gt,schwinn) had 5 great years with them, they have a new marketing plan in place....this happens all the time with corperate sponsorship..us postal left road at the highest it could have gotten....but it was time for a change...what you guys fail to realize is the sponsorship was for all the types of bikes, not just mtb....so to say they left mtb because it's numbers are down is incorrect....we just had jamie bestwick win x games as a gt/hyundai athlete.
if the sanctioning bodies would give more back (tv maybe?) maybe the car companies would return?....jeep is a made for tv event end of story....they could care less if we are on mtb bikes,wheel barrels, or big wheels. we are just fill for an informercial.
as for the teams....i know there is a couple of companies already in the works to take that position.
 

S.K.C.

Turbo Monkey
Feb 28, 2005
4,096
25
Pa. / North Jersey
BC VAN:
jeep is a made for tv event end of story....they could care less if we are on mtb bikes,wheel barrels, or big wheels.
LOL - that's hilarious - but true.

I guess we hadn't thought about the other disciplines out there - didn't know that Hyundai was also sponsoring BMX Freestyle, road, etc....

...and yeah - if the sport got more back in the form of "face time" on T.V. then big sponsors would be thinking about coming over...

Thanks for your thoughts on this BC VAN.