New Title Sponsor Rumors Are Swirling for Jumbo-Visma
Given their massive success over the last few years, it’s hard to imagine that Jumbo-Visma will have much trouble finding a main sponsor going forward.
After it was announced that Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo will be ending their relationships with most of their iconic sports teams and figures (up to and including F1 superstar and reigning World Champion Max Verstappen) by the end of 2024, it’s been wondered who might take over as the Dutch team’s title sponsor.
And though the team’s manager Richard Plugge has said that the team is in talks with a variety of interested parties, one group has risen to the top of the rumor mill, according to Dutch news outlet WielerFlits and first reported by cyclingnews.com.
Per a recent report, the Saudi Arabian mega-development project Neom, which is the biggest architectural plan in the world, is investigating the possibility of taking over as Jumbo-Visma’s main title sponsor.
However, Neom’s interest is apparently news to Plugge, who told Wielerflits he had no previous knowledge of the Saudi project’s intention.
“Interesting,” Plugge said, claiming to have had no previous contact with anyone from Neom. “Their interest in sponsoring our team is new to me.”
Plugge went on to explain how, in addition to exploring options internally, Jumbo-Visma has contracted outside agencies to explore potential partners for future sponsorship and that perhaps someone from one of those agencies has been in contact with Neom.
“It is possible that one of our contact persons or agencies that we have engaged to find a new sponsor for us is in contact with this party,” Plugge said. “We get an update from them every so often.”
Plugge added that, while he and the team are in “serious talks” with several interested parties, there is nothing concrete to report as of yet.
The vision of Neom is to create a fully carbon neutral supercity built along a nearly 300-mile stretch of the coast of the Red Sea. The project is planned to encompass nearly 16,500-square-miles of land. By comparison, Maryland covers 12,406-square-miles.
The Neom project has an ambitious timetable, with its earliest developments slated to open in 2024 and projections for a full completion by 2030. It is financed by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund and carries a reported budget of $500 billion.
Much like its neighbors in the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain, Saudi Arabia has been accused of a longstanding phenomenon recently coined as “sportswashing;” that is, trading on the global interest in sports to downplay a nation’s poor human rights record.
Saudi soccer clubs are spending millions to bring marquee talent to the nation. The last World Cup in Qatar is reported to have netted the country over $1.5 billion, despite the tremendous loss of life that resulted during the preparations for the tournament. And recent Champions League and English Premier League winners Manchester City are owned by a conglomerate whose majority stakeholder is the Abu Dhabi United Group.
Whether Neom becomes Plugge’s team’s main sponsor remains to be seen. But Norwegian business software firm Visma and the team’s bike sponsor Cervélo have both confirmed plans to stay on board with the squad going forward.
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