Funding: the Belkin suggestion

Much gnashing of teeth this week, at the news that Belkin are breaking their two-and-a-half year contract and are ducking out of sponsorship at the end of this season.

Swines!

What is the point of having a contract if you don't keep to it? Grr, grrrrr, grrrr.

The team are now scratching around for another sponsor, and in the meantime have announced that they are asking for "crowd funding" - the news report said they are asking supporters to donate ten euros to help them keep going until they find a sponsor, and to demonstrate to any potential sponsors that they have a good level of support from the fans.

Reading the anonymous comments on the news report, it would appear that a lot of people don't understand what "donate" means: many of them were asking what they got for their money. These are people who have clearly never given to charity in their lives - when you donate, you don't expect to get anything, other than a warm internal glow and the knowledge that you are enriching your soul by doing something for someone else. Even though in this case,  you are doing it in order to keep a team that you support going, which might be considered to be slightly selfish.

Other people queried what would happen to the money if the team did not get a sponsor, and had to fold - who would get it? They reminded us of the Kimmidge fund problem, where unscrupulous people can appropriate donated money. It's a valid point.

Then someone pointed out that on the Belkin website, it doesn't ask for "donations", they are in fact asking for money and in return you get "membership", so you are indeed getting something for your money.

When I read the terms and conditions of membership, however, I found it was a bit worrying:

"1. ‘Team Belkin Membership’ subscription at a price of € 10.00
2. ’Team Belkin plus Membership’ subscription at a price of € 25.
3. ‘Team Belkin Ride the Future Membership’ subscription at a price of € 75.00

4.2 The Subscriber shall pay the Subscription fees in advance. The Agreement enters into effect when the Subscriber purchases one or more of the Belkin Pro Cycling Subscriptions. Subscriptions run for one year. At the end of the duration Subscriptions and thereby the Agreement will be tacitly renewed for an indefinite duration. On renewal, the Subscriber’s Subscription is automatically converted into a Belkin plus subscription. Every Subscriber therefore pays, from the renewal of the Subscription, an annual subscription fee of 10 euros"

There are a couple of points here that concern me - "tacitly renewed"? Once you are assimilated, there is no escape, apparently. For an "indefinite duration". That'll be "for ever more" then, as there does not seem to be a mechanism for cancelling it.

It also says that on renewal, your membership is upgraded, which presumably means that you have to pay the higher fee. For ever more. And the following para contains threats that if subs are not paid, the subscriber is liable to pay interest on the amount owed from the moment it becomes due. Scary!  They don't specify who will come round to your house and collect the unpaid sub and the interest (for ever more, remember): I suppose if they are going to send round a skinny domestique it wouldn't be so bad, I think I could probably hold my own against one of them, but what if they sent a beefy mechanic?

In case you are wondering what you get for your money, for 10 euros you get an annual email newsletter, for 25 you get the newsletter plus a flag and a bidon, for 75 you also get a replica team shirt. Huh, bet they don't do one in my size! *laughs*

Bearing in mind that I am reading a translation of the website, I thought it wasn't entirely clear whether they were asking for people to join as members, or to just give them money, so it might be that you can donate your 10 euros just the once. But I wouldn't bet on it, and because of that, I won't be contributing.

Some people were very rude about the idea, and talked of "putting out the begging bowls" and suggested "if they want to make money they could sell bidons". That suggestion is a bit behind the times, several pro teams offer bidons and musettes (at exorbitant cost) on their websites, although I have to say they would probably do well if they set up a stall at the team buses at races, selling stuff to the crowd. You might remember the efforts I had to make to acquire musettes at the Tour of Britain last year...

One person even suggested that they should put a collecting box on the bikes, and we can throw coins into it as they pass.

Hey, great idea! Oh, hold on, that means that every race will be won by a complete unknown, as all the favourites will be weighed down by all the coins (mental picture of Andy having to be pushed uphill, with his collection bowl overflowing). Maybe the more popular riders would have to periodically hand their bowl to a domestique who would take it back to the team car for emptying?

Perhaps they will have to have Unloading Zones as well as Feed Zones, where they tip the money out. Or perhaps each team can send round a motorcycle, like the one that gives out bidons, but with a chute for tipping the coins into.

Better still, instead of tossing coins, we could tuck euro notes into their pockets, their armbands, and up the leg of their shorts - that would work best on very steep climbs, I think, when they are pedalling quite slowly. Not so easy on the descents, I do admit.

Meanwhile, once you have donated to a team, you should definitely be allocated a specific item that your 10 euros has paid for. One of the bolts holding the stem, perhaps? Two rolls of bar tape? Four square inches of the driver's seat cover on the team bus? One inch of the left-hand windscreen wiper on the team car? Maybe if we clubbed together, we could get one leg of Andy's skinsuit?

The mind boggles.