Americas Cup - and Alinghi drops out

Next cup will be a 2 team showdown between NZ and ITA. No other challengers.

You heard it here first.
 
Next cup will be a 2 team showdown between NZ and ITA. No other challengers.

You heard it here first.

That's not going to do a lot for the TV coverage and all the other expected financial benefits of hosting the Cup. On that basis, I wonder if they'll find anywhere prepared to host it? What about the companies who sponsor the teams? Will they judge their brand exposure as being sufficient to justify the investment? I think there's a possibility that your forecast is overly optimistic by about two boats but only time will tell.
 
That's not going to do a lot for the TV coverage and all the other expected financial benefits of hosting the Cup. On that basis, I wonder if they'll find anywhere prepared to host it? What about the companies who sponsor the teams? Will they judge their brand exposure as being sufficient to justify the investment? I think there's a possibility that your forecast is overly optimistic by about two boats but only time will tell.
I predict a damp squib, followed by a hiatus. Sadly the foiling, whilst technically impressive, has pushed the cost so obscenely high that "standard" corporate backed teams aren't viable. You need a Billionaire prepared to spend big for the glory.
 
I predict a damp squib, followed by a hiatus. Sadly the foiling, whilst technically impressive, has pushed the cost so obscenely high that "standard" corporate backed teams aren't viable. You need a Billionaire prepared to spend big for the glory.

It would be interesting to hear from one of the teams how much less they think they would spend if they went to a 72ft version of the TP52 box rule. I have a feeling that the amounts saved wouldn't be enough to open the competition up to non billionaire backed teams, as for example you might well halve the design costs, but quadrupple the number of people you are employing on the sailing team.
 
It would be interesting to hear from one of the teams how much less they think they would spend if they went to a 72ft version of the TP52 box rule. I have a feeling that the amounts saved wouldn't be enough to open the competition up to non billionaire backed teams, as for example you might well halve the design costs, but quadrupple the number of people you are employing on the sailing team.
I think the reduction in the sailing team was more than offset by the people monitoring the systems etc back at base. The AC75s required 8 after all. You could do a modern 72 footer with 11-12 maybe.
 
Most of those 8 could be replaced with a battery pack.
Yes, true.

The cup has a really big problem though if the undoubted success (in terms of interest) of the last cup doesn't translate into more teams, but instead to multiple teams and sponsors pulling out.
 
They also have an issue in that there's no organising governing body and no fixed repetition rate, the production team was disbanded and quite a bit of the broadcast kit flogged off.

It's basically started from scratch every time. They'd probably be better of doing a deal with OBS (Olympics) or HBS (FIFA) to create the TV feeds and promise to avoid co-timing with their major events.
 
I think the americas cup folk need to have a serious bit of introspection as to why they have 2(?) at best boats on the start line in however many years time.

Whereas just had a look at the sailgp last result and saw they had 12 boats on the start line.

I know if I could only choose one event
to watch I’d choose…

FWIW I predict the next Americas cup predominant headlines will be about the court room solicitors. Again.
 
I think the americas cup folk need to have a serious bit of introspection as to why they have 2(?) at best boats on the start line in however many years time.

Whereas just had a look at the sailgp last result and saw they had 12 boats on the start line.

I know if I could only choose one event
to watch I’d choose…

FWIW I predict the next Americas cup predominant headlines will be about the court room solicitors. Again.
What happened last time with solicitors? I think I missed it. I understand racing disputes at the time but not anything else.

I only raced in sailing clubs and didn’t even dispute a bloke who rammed me on purpose and probably out of spite.
 
Yes, true.

The cup has a really big problem though if the undoubted success (in terms of interest) of the last cup doesn't translate into more teams, but instead to multiple teams and sponsors pulling out.

Was there that much interest, really? The AC guys are good at throwing superlatives around but if there is so much actual interest then why do host cities seem to be so reluctant to put their hand up to host a second “successful” AC?
 
Was there that much interest, really? The AC guys are good at throwing superlatives around but if there is so much actual interest then why do host cities seem to be so reluctant to put their hand up to host a second “successful” AC?
Well, for starters the biggest issue now is that nobody can go to a host city with any details - when, how many teams, required facilities, expected fan numbers etc.

But it also cost the city a huge amount of money, that they didn’t come close to directly recouping through ticket sales etc. so the pitch is economic benefit. But at a huge initial outlay. Which of course is a tough sell in the current climate, especially given the concerns above.
 
Yes, the uncertainty about the next AC goes part of the way to explaining the lack of interest from hosts - but when the same issue has occurred time and time again, doesn’t it indicate that the AC is simply not generating the returns on investment that it claims to?

As you indicate, among academics working in sports management there seems to be strong agreement that these events often fail to create the economic return that they foresee - or that consultant firms often engaged by those involved claim after the event has concluded. For example, in one recent AC the post-event report measured publicity impact by a measure that the relevant professional body says is simply incorrect and should not be used because it caused such wild over-estimates.

Those in government tend to see through these things pretty well, apart from the politicians who get drawn in by the glamour and frustrate those who have seen the BS and over-hype before by falling for the claims - once.
 
I think on venues, they have some limitations - the pretty windy graphics use triangulation of multiple Lidar, so they need a bay facing prevailing winds where the race course is within range of the shore based Lidar stations and which has clear skies.
 
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