06/29/24

AN ECONOMIC PRIMER TO THE TOUR DE FRANCE

With the biggest and baddest bike race upon us, here’s a quick preview an economic primer if to get you started.

Who owns the Tour De France:

A.S.O or Amaury Sport Organisation. Which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Groupe Amaury, a privately held French company controlled by the Amaury family.

A.S.O has the rights sponsorships for the event and, importantly, the TV broadcast rights for the Tour De France.

A.S.O owns several other major pro races on the calendar including the Vuelta a Espana and the one day classic Paris Roubaix. OF the Tour De France is the crown jewel in that portfolio.

How many people watch the Tour de France:

The numbers are astounding, most estimates place the spectator count along the entire route to be in the neighborhood of 15 million and the overall Television views to be north of 1 billion.

How much prize money is given out at the Tour De France:

According to L’Equipe (Newspaper also owned by Groupe Amaury)

There is $2.3m in total prize money up for grabs throughout the race.  With 500,000 euro going to the overall winner; $200,000 for second all the way down to 1,100 euro for 19th place. And 1,000 euro for places 20ththrough 176.

In addition, the stage winners will also receive prize money. The winner of each stage receives 11,000 euros and there is decreasing prize money all the way down to 20th place on each stage.

And the winners of the each of the ‘non yellow’ jerseys (green, white and polka dot) will receive; 25,000 euros, 25,000 euros and 20,000 euros respectively.

 How much TV Revenue does the Tour De France Generate:

TV Revenue represents the bulk of the Tour De France’s revenue and most estimates put the number at over 100,000,000 euros with the French TV deal alone being over 25m euros.

Do Towns pay to be along the Tour De France route:

Yes. For the starts of stages and finishes of stages mainly. And the numbers vary widely from 25,000 euro to upwards of 5,000,000 euro for the larger cities or the Grand Departes. The Tour is perhaps the ultimate ‘circus’ coming to town and it generates a reason for many a thousand of Tour spectators to descend upon your city.

Large Financial moves this year:

Team funds are largely driven by their title sponsors and this year there have been two very large moves.  

First. Ag2r a longstanding French team/ French team sponsor has been joined by Decathlon, a French sporting goods retailer controlled by the French Mulliez family, and the largest in the world to become Decathlon-AG2R. The influx of cash has proven out in results this year. It’s not hyperbole to say that they won more this year than the previous 15 years combined.

Second. Red Bull, the Austrian-Thai sports sponsoring mega power, purchased a majority stake in Bora Hangrohe from team owner Ralph Denk. They add general Classification contender, Primoz Roglic to the roster and debut their logo on the jerseys for the Tour De France. And if Red Bull’s work in other sports is any indication, they are here to attack.

Why we love the Tour De France:

All of the above; the course, the spectators and the drama on the road