We all follow along every when it comes to contract time, and the riders and teams do their annual scramble for talent and rides. But with nearly all of the riders in place with teams for next season, now the secondary Silly Season has been underway for a while…where sponsors negotiate and compete for space on team uniforms and on bike graphics.
What will be interesting to see are the brands that will be sporting new graphics when we get to Anaheim 1. For years, the U.S. Yamaha Factory Race Team has featured the most plain-wrap corporate graphics package among the factory bikes. But we hear that they’ll be sporting some new sponsors when the team unloads at Anaheim, which is why you have yet to see any photos of the ’08 squad aboard their bikes yet. (They’ve got just over a month before the new agreement kicks in).
Over in Europe, the De Carli Yamaha team, which features Antonio Cairoli, Matteo Bonini, and Alessandro Lupino, announced that they will now be known as the Yamaha Red Bull De Carli Team.
Add in rumors of Honda’s U.S. team being aligned with Red Bull for ’08, and hearing tales of gear companies trying to meet with the demands of outside sponsors logo guidelines, while maintaining their own apparel branding, and you definitely have a secondary Silly Season.
