The IPT – Israel Premier Tech professional cycling team was born from Sylvan Adams’ vision: a fusion of his two great passions: Cycling and Israel, or more specifically, its "good name" and the finer side of Israel.
Sylvan Adams didn't reinvent the wheel. Professional sports, across all disciplines but especially in those with hours of airtime like the road cycling Grand Tours (itself a form of marketing), rely on sponsors – they are its lifeblood. Without them, it’s just a hobby. These sponsors pounce on the opportunity for screen time and, just as importantly, the surrounding media buzz.
This opportunity also attracts nations, specifically those of the "third kind" (not to be confused with the Third World), that sponsor professional sports teams. In doing so, they gain "soft legitimacy" that stems from being recognized as patrons of the sports we all love. That is why Qatar has a cycling team (and more), as do the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. Well, until recently.
In the marketing world, this is known as "sportswashing", image laundering through sports investment. Before we get on our high horse, it’s worth reminding ourselves that this is the same deal struck with commercial brands. Whether it’s a supermarket chain or an airline, everyone seeks to enjoy the stardust and rub some of it onto their sometimes battered brands.
All of this holds true until the moment the brand loses its grip (refer to our 100th issue project).
A brief reminder: Adams’ cycling team began with the sexiest name a team could have, which was a genuine truth for its time: Israel Start-Up Nation. However, since the judicial overhaul began, the "Israel" brand has taken a series of blows to the chin from global public opinion. In practice, the damage intensified significantly since the second month of the war in Gaza. In our world, we call this a severe and rapid self-destruction of value. How severe? As severe as the difficulty of speaking Hebrew out loud in many places around the globe today.
As the image crisis escalated, Adams’ team became a primary target for protests during stage races in Italy, France, and especially Spain. It reached a point where entire races were disrupted, stages were shortened, and even the finish lines were relocated from their original spots.
The protests and their fallout took up a significant portion of the live broadcasts. Day after day, through six or seven hours of cycling, protesters were seen breaching flimsy barriers and blocking the path of the Israeli team’s riders-at the start, in the middle, and at the finish.
Consequently, the enjoyment of sports fans was spoiled, and not to their benefit, due to the protests against Israel that focused on Adams’ cycling team, which, by the way, employs (or more accurately, employed) world-class stars at salaries of millions of euros per season.
As a viewer of these races, I can completely understand them-races that are cut in the middle leave the audience with a bitter taste in their mouth, a taste of what could have been. Therefore, it wasn't just the team that had buckets of filth thrown at them, but every individual rider as well (all of them are foreigners, with the exception of two Israelis who usually do not participate in the major races). It wasn't only the riders who were smeared by the stench; every brand that sponsored the team was affected too-the bike manufacturer, the clothing, and the various equipment providers, every single one of them.
How did Adams manage this media crisis, which threatened to destroy his life’s work of the last 11 years? In interviews in Israel, he was very firm, using harsh words against the protesters and vowing never to surrender; he showed no signs of folding in the global media either.
One of the first rules of crisis management states that a crisis must be killed while it is still small, before it turns into a flood that no coat could protect from.Adams watched the unfolding crisis. It is possible that had he acted only according to the norms of the real estate world from which he comes, he would have cut the "Israel" brand the moment it began to hurt the team, which was the embodiment of everything he had dreamed of. That’s not what he did. Maybe Adams was torn between his duty to the team and his desire to help promote Israel’s name to the world. He might have felt that stripping the team of its Israeli identity wouldn't serve the purpose for which he set out. He might also have feared that his own name would be damaged as someone who wasn't afraid to kick the brand (Israel) in its hardest hour, and what that would say about him and all the (beautiful!) philanthropy he carries out in Israel.
Either way, the first rule of crisis management wasn't followed. The crisis turned into a flood, and the team's biggest star announced he was leaving. Others followed him, then the bike manufacturer announced it was pulling its investment. Then the team announced it was only removing the name "Israel" from the jerseys for the riders' safety, but even that didn't help. Then the major sponsor, Premier Tech, joined in and announced it was cutting ties. It was the fastest destruction of value possible.
How does it end? It's not completely over yet. But now there is what looks like a new team, under a different name (NSN), registered in Switzerland. The new management announced that Adams will not be involved and will not influence the team’s path. On the other hand, he kept his shares in the company that owns the team, which doesn't exactly calm the protesters against the team, even in its new form. Our brand has become so toxic that even if a person agrees to be a silent puppet, he still can't clean his name. And this-pardon our sentimentality-disturbs our sleep, and we cannot understand how the public debate about it is not taking place, or is held at such a low level ("Antisemites!").
