Where did it all go wrong?

I'm trying to understand how we have got from the great spectacle that
was the 32nd America's Cup to the debacle that we currently have but
with the same defender.

In the recent poll on this forum, those who expressed a preference
thought Bertarelli was the bigger idiot.

So Alinghy originally accepted a challenge from what the courts upheld to
be an illegal challenger. Was the idea to have the challenger in their
pocket so that they could apply pressure for mutual agreement over
anything contentious? But if that resulted in another spectacle like the
32nd America's Cup would that have been such a bad thing - surely
better than trundling along to the courts every 5 minutes.

To be fair to BMW-Oracle when they have gone to court they do seem to
have been on quite strong ground in terms of the wording of the Deed of
Gift if perhaps often missing the spirit of it. However, if they had just
turned a blind eye to the illegality of the original challenger would we
have long since have seen another wonderful regatta?