Why sponsorship makes sense in cycling

So for any of you guys who follow some professional sports such as football over in Europe or cycling or the likes you often see that there is some kind of sponsorship going on.  In cycling, it is pretty much completely funded/run by sponsorship money and in the past few years there's been a little bit of a crisis in terms of sponsorship. I think a lot of companies think that sponsorship isn't worth it but I have a little bit of a story from my recent travels to Mexico.

There are two pretty big teams in cycling right now, one is at the world tour (essentially the first division) called Movistar.  There's also a second one that's at the professional continental level (kinda a devision 2) called Europcar.  Now both of these are title sponsors and if you watch cycling you hear about them or see them at the races. 

So when we got down there lo and behold what did I see? A Europcar storefront for renting cars.  And I mean I didn't rent a car there but because of the brand recognition, if I had to I'd probably go with them if I didn't see anyone else I knew like Hertz or Budget. I kinda knew that Europcar was pretty big on car rentals down in the Carribean, South America, Mexico region so it wasn't a huge surprise. 

Movistar on the other hand, I knew nothing about, what they were, where they were based, what were big markets.  But when I saw hey they do cellphones, it'd probably be the first one I go for.  Once again because I recognize it, and if they're sponsoring a pro level cycling team, they're probably at the very least a little bit dependable.  

Now I'm not a fan of either of these teams, but I see them when I watch races.  And chances are you'll probably see them too if you watch, so the thing that companies have to realize is that your sponsorship goes a lot farther than just your own fans, it goes to pretty much anyone who follows cycling so the rate of return ends up being quite high, and you reach a global audience. Because I see them, and even though I may know nothing about them, just the fact that you've seen it before can be a motivation enough to go with that company. 

Hopefully companies will understand this and see the value in it, and maybe we'll stop having problems with teams folding (like the Women's teams) or even pro teams that just suddenly have sponsors disappear. 

~Cheers