Americas Cup - Dull ?

With appologies to Abba, it's a rich man sport.

The thing I find strange is they'll use the 80 footers for the warm up and the 90 footers for the racing. So the first time Alinghi races a 90 footer will be Race 1 33rd Americas cup.

The funding of syndicates is pretty opaque but it looks as if for the most part, billionaires funding from their own pockets is the dominant source of funding anyway. So for example, it appears "Oracle" was primarily paid for by Larry Ellison (not by Oracle) plus BMW. An exception was ETNZ which seems to have been largely funded by the Kiwi taxpayer in the hope of bringing the event back to Auckland.

The contrast to, say, the VO where commercial sponsors dominate, is very clear. There all decisions are based on the interests of the sponsors. At least that brings clarity. The AC seems to be in some half-way house between the needs of commercial sponsors and the wishes of the billionaires who provide the core funding for most team.

I think it's pretty obvious that the management of the AC does not have media coverage at the top of its agenda. For starters, it wouldn't be based at a light/medium air venue if TV appeal was the major consideration.