October 8/08 12:59 pm - Team Swift Seeking Sponsors and Support for 2009

Posted by Editoress on 10/8/08
 

Swift Racing is an English Women's Pro Cycling team that races out of Belgium and are having some sponsorship problems and have come up with a way to raise funds in order for them to race next year.

Britain's top professional women's team invites supporters to own a share of their success via an innovative Internet venture.

Swift Racing was the UK's first professional women's cycling team in 2006 and has grown every year since, developing and showcasing the best talent in women's international cycling. Our palmares speaks for itself: European Track Champion, National Cyclo-Cross Champion, National U23 Road Race Champion, National Criterium Champion, World Cup Medals. 2008 has been our most successful year to date, but we need your help to continue winning.

Like most professional cycling teams, money is limited and we fund our racing season from the goodwill and financial support of our sponsors. It may surprise you to learn that to this point in time, the riders and staff in our team are unpaid and they do what they do for the love of their sport rather than to make big money. Whereas even footballers in the lower leagues earn tens of thousands of pounds every week, Swift Racing contains cyclists ranked in the top five of the world who ride and race week-in, week-out, for no financial return.

With the credit-crunch talked about in the news and in the papers every day, Swift Racing is also feeling the pinch. Our title sponsor, Swift Motorhomes, to whom we owe a great deal of gratitude and support, have decided that because of the economic climate they cannot sponsor us next year. In simple terms, this means that there is a risk we may not be able to race next season and the team will have to fold.

This is the bit where you come in.

In order for Swift Racing to continue next year, we need to raise funds now and we're turning to our fans and supporters who have backed, cheered and urged the team on throughout all our races so far, to help us do this.

Just as facebook, YouTube and MySpace are all about user-generated content; we've decided to create a user-generated cycling team. We're offering supporters the opportunity to donate money to purchase a part of our squad, giving them a share of what will soon become 'Team You'.

Until we find our next title sponsor, we will be called 'Team You', reflecting your input to your new team.

To obtain more information about how to be donate or become involved in this project, contact
Stefan Wyman, Team Manager
stefan@teamswiftracing.com