It's clear you don't know much about cycling. A pro team often consists of ~30 riders, and then 8~12 of them are selected for various races during the year. And similarly, that's the main team and they have development teams on the second level, junior teams, women teams etc

The season is longer than tour de france, that's just the most prestigious tour. There are other tours and other races. It's about 8 months long.

And I don't really think how long the season is has any relevance. You still train and need your apparatus whole year round.

The stadium stuff also doesn't really work in the favor of nfl. A pro team makes no money on tickets or concessions, and has to travel the world with their gear instead of a few states away.

The tour I think of like the World Series or Champions League tournament. Only one, highly visible, piece of a long calender (roughly Februrary to October)

> An (American) NFL team has 53 "active" players (plus a practice squad, plus ...), and plays a 5-month season. And has a lot of "maintain a major stadium"-type expenses, which (my guess) cycling teams don't have.

Cycling teams have all kinds of expenses too. True, they don't have to maintain a major stadium. But hey do have cars to assist the riders with food, drinks, spare tires, spare bikes if needed (sometimes multiple types of bike for some of the riders); team busses with showers, more food, meeting room (I think they also have washing machines in them, to provide the riders with clean clothing every day in a stage race); a service course for all the equipment, and to adjust and fix the bikes. Plus personnel to equip all those, plus personnel along the road with more food and drinks, and in some races also with spare wheels. Pro teams often participate in multiple races at the same time, so they need all that equipment times two or three. These days many teams haul mattresses along on stage races, to guarantee good sleep for the riders. All of that stuff, and the people involved, need to be transported to each race on time, sometimes to the other end of the world.

I don't know how that compares with say an NFL team, but I do know my head starts to hurt when I think about how to organize all of that (and more; I most likely forgot some stuff) throughout the year.

> I don't know how that compares...

The financial part of the report I linked shows the NFL team spending $40M/year on their stadium & other facilities. And similar-ish amounts in several other non-player-compensation expense categories.

(Yes, I wish that report's financials were far more detailed.)

>If that budget is for an 8-man team, in a sport with a 3 1/2-week season...

The tour de france is 3 1/2 weeks, the cycling season is much longer.

Even you think it is peanuts in comparison when expecting it to be for one particular race.

> a 3 1/2-week season

This year's UCI World Tour season runs from January 16 to October 20. Where are you getting "3 1/2 week season" from?