The team is sponsored by the German company Nordmilch which uses this sponsoring to promote its European brand for milk products, Milram.
The effect of media exposure
Immediately after ARD's announcement to stop broadcasting the Tour de France on TVfootnote, Nordmilch announced it was to reassess the value of its sponsorship and that it would do so after having estimated the complete impact on the advertising effect regarding its Milram brand in 2009.
The reason for this reassessment was clearly the disappearance of the media exposure of the brand because the company announced that some incorrigible persons succeeded in enforcing a cutback of the media coverage and that millions of cycling fans will have to suffer from this.
During the Tour of Germany however, the team had shown a new kit which would probably become the team's new kit for 2009 and the new colours of the team bus. The new design would give a better visibility of the brand and its products because the kit and the bus showed a clear link with milk products by using a blueish cow skin.
Officially the company still has a sponsor contract until the end of 2010 (of about 8 million euros a year). According to the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung however, the company is studying ways to get rid of this contract before that time.
Linus Gerdemann, newcomer in the team in 2009, was surprised when the newspaper questioned him about this news: Milram hasn't told me anything about this. Anyway, I have a two year contract so I'll continue to prepare my season as before. The Dutch team manager Gerry van Gerwen, said in the same article he was not aware of a possible withdrawal of its sponsor.
If Milram stops its sponsoring this could well be the end of the last German cycling team (after the Gerolsteiner team disappeared at the end of the past season) ... Would the disappearance of German teams lead to a total disappearance of cycling in German media?? To be continued!
UPDATE 7 December: and the story was indeed to be continued becauset on 5 December Nordmilch announced through a press release that after a thorough analysis and discussion with Velocity GmbH (the operating company of the team, owned by team manager Gerry van Gerwen) they had decided to continue their sponsoring and again start the 2009 season as Team Milram.
footnote: ARD's withdrawal doesn't necessarily mean that German people can no longer watch the Tour de France on TV because Eurosport is widely available on cable in Germany and continues to broadcast la Grande Boucle. Furthermore, the European Broadcasting Union's president Fritz Pleitgen told early November that ARD has a contractual obligation to broadcast the Tour de France at least until 2011. by Thomas Vergouwen
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