The marketing genius who allowed this to be announced in the middle of the biggest American stage race, with the title team's strongest appearance, with their team leading(!), should be reassigned to walk the delivery routes. Just not in my neighborhood.

Ken

I'm using Fed-Ex and electronic bill pay from here on out. No more U.S. mail. Money talks. Let's watch their bottom-line erode even more.

What a bunch of morons pulling the rug out from under them during the Tour de Georgia. Way to motivate the team guys! A-holes.

....are you listening???

Time to step (back) up to the plate......

> Hey Subaru......are you listening?

Subaru picks up that team, and I'm trading in my Cherokee for a Forester. We already traded my wife's clunky Wrangler for an Outback Sport, and we love that car so far (6 months).

-Zo

I bought an Outback Sport as well. One of the reasons is that they do support cycling. I love it.

I hope Subaru NA seriously considers it.

Uh, I thought the point was to promote their international package delivery, not US mail delivery. I have heard that the USPS only money makes on stamps you don't use.

I have no idea what the marketing plan is/was, just noting that the timing of the announcement could have been a little better. Like maybe next week. Or last week. Or the previous week. Or the week following next week. Or some other time when they weren't in the middle of a stage race that their team was leading. I do catch your point that the plan is for "global" (presumably European) marketing, but judging from the comments above, they haven't done themselves any favors.

Ken

Their sponsorship was rather silly anyway...I don't think there's any real concern over their market share - parcel stuff aside, THEY ARE the market, and shouldn't a government-run service be essentially not-for-profit anyway?

It's been said here and elsewhere before that the sponsorship was probably a huge waste of federal funds anyway.

I guess they could be given "some" credit for the resurgance of pro cycling in this country, but I think we all know on whos shoulder's that rests......

For a good article on the USPS sponsorship:

http://www.lancearmstrong.com/...2.nsf/html/04uspsltr

Read the letter on Lance's site about the situation - USPS is most certainly capable of supporting this team! In fact, if the letter is factually correct, the entire sponsorship package ends up taking up like .06xxx% of the USPS' annual advertising budget. Absolute morons. This was the one smart thing they did as a company that gave them a positive spin, after years of being famous only for spawning disgruntled employees who came and shot up their co-workers. "Going Postal" didn't come from thin air. I have a feeling that whatever company steps up to sponsor them at this point in time will be a huge winner, since cycling is beginning to break out in the US in a big way, much like soccer in the early 90's.

The 1970 Postal Reoganization Act transformed The Post Office Department into the United States Postal Service, an independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States.

Among the changes:

"It authorized the Postal Service to borrow money from the general public and phased out the general public service subsidy, which the Postal Service ended earlier than required, last accepting an operational subsidy in 1982."

The USPS acts as a self-funded organization, so no federal funds were 'wasted' on it's sponsorship of the team.

In the end, as in any other business, you have to look at whether or not their marketing choice led you, the consumer, to choose their service over that of a comparable provider.

Well did it? We are probably all "above-average" pro cycling fans. The majority of whom have a personal pereference for the Posties. And for example, most of us have probably ordered alot of tri paraphenalia over the past 6 years - how many times have we (due to our allegiance to their sponsorship) chosen the USPS as the delivery carrier over another company that was either cheaper and/or faster???

I tell you what, I hadn't actually considered the USPS-Fedex-UPS conundrum before, but I made a cycling inspired purchasing decision at the grocery store the other day. I've always bought Bertolli Olive Oil, no real reason, probably the price and I like the aesthetics of the bottle. I decided to buy Colavita Olive Oil as they are sponsoring a US Based Division 2 cycling team: Colavita-Bolla, and I want to support companies that support cycling. I urge everyone else to do the same.

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"The more you sweat today, the less you bleed tomorrow"

[reply]The USPS acts as a self-funded organization, so no federal funds were 'wasted' on it's sponsorship of the team.[/reply]

Key term here is "acts as". Don't they receive a hefty bailout from congress every few years? Every time this rolls around we read newspaper stories about the typical gross waste coming out of this govt entity.

So how many Trek 5200 owners will want the US postal garb off of their bikes? Or does that make em collectors items?

Exactly right. The last time I remember, they got $4B of tax money. It's all "off budget" but it's our money just the same.

I like pro cycling a lot and Lance is pretty much my hero but I don't think the USPS should be sponsoring a team and the arguments on his website are stupid. Think about it: USPS loses money. Why is it advertising? So that it can deliver more mail/packages and lose more money? An "economies of scale" argument may work elsewhere but not here. USPS does enough volume now that if it is losing money as it is, bigger volume is just going to make things worse.

I could see a strong argument that a normal business (i.e. one that actually makes money on each transaction and would therefore help its bottom line, rather than hurt it, by getting more business) might get real value sponsoring the team. The problem is that that is not USPS.

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Anyone who tells you they're as fast now as they were when they were 18...
sure wasn't very fast when they were 18.

Check this statement out, from the cyclingnew live report...

On the other hand, it's highly likely that a new sponsor will step in to fill the breach, and presenting sponsor Berry Floor has already indicated that it will increase its commitment. According to our sources in Berry Floor, the presence of the best known cyclist in the world meant that Berry Floor more than doubled its sales in 2003, the first year of sponsorship of the USPS team.

Right on, that means we can do away with the silly "presented by" stuff. Straight up Berry Floor.

Hey guys, what about the flip side of the sponsorship... A big thanks to the USPS for continuing to support the premier US program started as Subaru-Montgomery, then Motorola, today USPS presented by Berry Floor, and next season they become a Belgian squad known simply as Berry Floor. Maybe being a Belgian team will help Hincappi finally nail one of the spring classics? Anyway, they gave us a nice run. Thanks USPS.

I gotta run out and buy a Subaru to thank them for support of so many of my sports and their significant level of advertising on OLN to keep up my TV fix.

Quite frankly, I see this as a good move by the postal service and am not too saddened by its decision to drop Lance and the team. 8 yrs is a long time and I never understood how the post office could support a team by giving it several million dollars a year when it continues to have financial problems of its own. Postal rates continue to rise while the service deteriorates. The money could be better spent on operational issues.

Maybe the folks at UPS are watching....

I can see it now - "Big Brown" or the "Brown Train"...

mmmmmmm.....sounds kinda gross........