Jerry Powell
Warren (whoever)...
Les might overstate a bit, but his is a really good question, and one
you seem to not understand. Why should the Pro peloton and it's
"owners" hold the leash on the rest of the sport? Tom Weisel did a
lot for the US Ski Association a few years ago, and the visibility of
the _sport_ bloomed... and the USSA, as an organization that
supported grassroots ski racing virtually disappeared. The
development of ski ski racers more or less "privatized". Is this the
likely future of cycling in the US? It's kind of a question of being
careful of what you ask for isn't it? Many believe that cycling is
at its best as a club sport. Many of us have worked to bring cycling
to the public to gain popular support. We find ourselves arguing
with some newspaper sports editor who wants to know how much
advertising would be attracted to his pages by covering cycling. We
find ourselves competing with sand castle building competitions for
airtime on sports TV channels. Weisel's way would likely ensure
public awareness of our sport, as an entertainment. It would likely
attract funding for professional cycling, and it might well multiply
the opportunities for media and TV exposure. It doesn't seem likely
that it would put (from my perspective) an appropriate emphasis on
grassroots development, and on developing racers. Maybe I'm wrong
about that, but I doubt it.
I am of course aware of the substantial contributions that Mr Weisel
has made to our sport, and like Les, I applaud him. My concern is
with the effect of the prop A "reforms", which seem to me to leave
open the prospect of continued factionalism and a resulting lack of
policy direction. Staff really seems to lack a clear understanding
of what they are expected to do, and how they might fund it. That
situation has to end.
Jerry Powell
At 5:20 PM -0700 9/10/01, Warren wrote:
Warren wrote:
Yesterday I attended the San Francisco Grand Prix. It was
sponsored in part by Thom Weisel and organized in large part by
the folks who promote most of the major pro races in the USA
including Threshold Sports. The SF GP is a first year event and
they did a great job with the event and more than 200,000
spectators attended the best race that California has seen since
the Coors Classic of 15 years ago. Countless more people watched
the five hours of live TV coverage of the event. Perhaps some of
the 200,000-500,000 people who saw the race yesterday or see the
other races promoted by these "pro-oriented" organizations will be
interested in becoming a bike racer and this can lead to a growth
in bike racing in the USA.
I and many others applaud Thom Weisel's role in organizing and
stimulating interest in professional bike racing and hope that he
continues to do it. But why does Warren apparently believe that
Weisel should control USA Cycling? Does Warren also believe that
some team owner in the NFL should control not only that
organization but also collegiate and high school football?
-Les Earnest
Wild extrapolations continue with no allowance for middle ground...
Others could turn the same trick that you're trying. If we let a
bunch of regional org's direct USAC policy then the professional
side of bike racing will suffer. This will make it more difficult to
attract major corporate sponsorship and all of cycling will suffer.
To continue Les's style of doomsaying based on no history with the
principals involved... If Thom Weisel pulled his money and other
support out of US cycling we'd be back to the days of just a few US
pros trying to find work on different European teams, i.e. no USPS
Team. Then we could go back to the 1980's when few people really
knew what bike racing was.
Riddle me this. If Thom Weisel had free rein over USA Cycling would
he want there to be any bike racers in the USA other than top-level
amateurs and pros?
-Warren
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