Over the past few days this has been brought up a few times on a message board, in person, e-mail, etc.
A long time ago, USAC (now USARS) did not allow skaters to have known sponsors. There were many reasons, and some are seen today. The mid to late 90's were FILLED with sponsorships from all kinds of company's, ranging from product, all the way to paying skaters large amounts of money for a paycheck. Geo/Rollerblade, Hyper, EC Beast, Rollerblade, Terminator, Miller, Labeda, Ultimate,.. I could go on ALL DAY on past sponsors that have thrown in tons of money to athletes. I was lucky enough to see it happen then, but I am also lucky enough to BE a sponsor today. Let me tell you, its ALOT different today, than it was 10-15 years ago.
As everyone knows there just is not as many skaters skating in the US now, less at the races, less at practice, less on the road and trails. Less skaters, means less profit for company's to put back into the athletes. I wish that I could do more for my skaters, but especially now, less people are going to races that means less product is getting sold.
Today's sponsorships in the US (save for a few elite skaters), are product only, and minimal product at that. Gone are the days of getting hotel rooms, plane tickets, perdium, gas money, and more, getting taken care of. Now with the company's making less profit, they cant pay for all of that. Skaters are lucky to get what they can now. Don't get me wrong, some are very grateful for anything that they can receive, but some others i guess saw what it was years ago, and don't understand now..
I wish I could pay for some flights for my skaters, I wish i could take care of all the rooms at hotels, but its different nowadays. Skaters don't get a "paycheck" now, but what they can do is sell product for there sponsor. If you sell product for your sponsor, you could get a kickback for the profit made. If you do your job, perform on the track, and sell product, then you are doing what you need to do for the person/company that is helping you.
I'm not trying to pick on anyone, just wanted to give a little insight to what most "sponsorships" are now.
God bless everyone, and I hope all of you are healthy and skating.
Don't forget to turn your clocks this Saturday night!
