The team will continue to ride under the Discovery Channel name this year, beginning with the Tour of California, a one-week race that begins Feb. 18 in San Francisco. But the search for a primary sponsor for 2008 comes as team officials acknowledge that some of the team’s current, lower-level sponsors have expressed doubts about their continued affiliation with the sport because of doping.
Officials from both Discovery Communications, the Maryland-based cable-television company that owns the Discovery Channel, and Tailwind Sports, the corporation that owns the cycling team, said Friday that Discovery’s decision was not related to the sport’s doping troubles.
“We have decided to aggressively shift our focus and resources to support our core business goals and objectives,” Discovery said in a statement.
Annie Howell, a spokeswoman for the company, said in an interview that cycling’s doping troubles “were not a part of the decision,” adding that the team had “deep respect” for Johan Bruyneel, the team’s race director, and other team officials.
Bill Stapleton, a part owner of the cycling team along with Armstrong, Bruyneel and others, said Friday in a telephone interview that the owners hoped to attract another United States company as the team’s lead sponsor.
Several of the team’s lower-level sponsors “expressed their displeasure and doubts about continuing” in the sport, he said.
He said any new sponsor would have the right, as did Discovery, to withdraw its support if any of the team’s riders failed a drug test. Before Discovery began its sponsorship in 2005, the United States Postal Service sponsored the team for eight years.
The team has already talked to several potential sponsors, Stapleton said, but having one commit to spending more than $15 million a year is not simple.
The Discovery Channel is to drop its sponsorship next year of the professional cycling team once led by Lance Armstrong.
