America’s Cup in Naples: how much it will cost and the unknowns about Bagnoli. A historic occasion, but…

Once the hangover from the announcement of the America’s Cup 2027 in Naples has passed., with Louis Vuitton sponsoring the event, it is already time to make some reflections on what for Italy and the capital of Campania promises to be a challenge of enormous appeal, an event of historic significance, but also with a high difficulty coefficient.

As per the official announcement, statements by Minister of Sport Andrea Abodi and Mayor of Naples Gaetano Manfredi talk about the regattas that will be held in the Bay of Naples, between Castel dell’Ovo and Posillipo, and the team bases that will be based in the Bagnoli area. Two aspects on which, especially the second, are worth reflecting on.

America’s Cup in Naples – Where, how and how much it will cost

We start by noting that the Naples race course is virtually perfect for AC 75 racing. Ideal weather conditions with a thermal breeze that blows robustly in the summer months with high pressure, even between 15 and 20 knots, moderate waves, and a waterfront of great breadth and charm and act as a natural grandstand.

Those who remember the 2012 America’s Cup preliminary races will have in mind how perfectly watchable they were for spectators from shore, with the boats almost touching each other. Granted, the AC 75s may not be able to push as far inshore as the AC 45s did, but the race course, thanks in part to a thermal breeze direction that often blows almost parallel to the waterfront or at a slight angle, will be decidedly appreciable from the coast.

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Luna Rossa strike: Peter Burling is in Cagliari, there is agreement with Italian team

There is the great unknown of how many teams will be at the start, but at this point, in a location like Naples and with audiences like Italy’s that are a total guarantee of turnout, at sea and ashore, perhaps little will change. Certainly, to Grant Dalton and those organizing the next Cup, to the sponsors who will fund it, having so many challengers in the race is definitely preferable.

But from the point of view of audience involvement even, deliberately exaggerating, a two-man match between Luna Rossa and Team New Zealand would be of enormous attraction. Indeed, a match of two would be not a match, but THE MATCH, a kind of The Rumble in The Jungle, like the cult boxing match between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali that took place at Stade Tata Raphaël in Kinshasa, Zaire in 1974. At the end of the day, the America’s Cup, the real one, has only ever been a match of two. The issue of challenger selection is, even historically, something collateral.

America’s Cup in Naples, the Bagnoli issue.

So far, then, so good, there are also gray areas in the whole affair, however, and they obviously concern the costs of the operation, and especially the involvement of the Bagnoli area as a logistical base for the teams. Bagnoli was home to ILVA, which produced pig iron and steel for over a century.

After the closure of the factory in the early 1990s, the problem of the reclamation of the area opened up, the so-called “sea-fill,” 195,000 square meters of concrete that tombed the coast covering all the blast furnace waste. Asbestos, arsenic and mercury and other toxic and polluting substances are found there, and it is from that time that there has been talk of the great reclamation work of Bagnoli to return that stretch of coastline to the city.

Official government estimates speak of 1.2 billion euros as funds needed to reclaim and redevelop the entire area. There was an official meeting in March 2025, which was attended by Tommaso Foti, the Minister for European Affairs, PNRR and Cohesion Policies, the Extraordinary Commissioner for Interventions in the Phlegraean Fields, Eng. Fulvio Maria Soccodato, and the Extraordinary Commissioner for the Bagnoli Reclamation, Gaetano Manfredi, who is also Mayor of Naples.

It was determined here that removing the entire fill is in fact impossible, because it is too costly and because it risks having even worse environmental impacts. Instead, the current project initially calls for removing about 20 percent of the fill, and sealing the section of the fill that will remain on the coast, as well as reclaiming the surrounding strands and soils.

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America’s Cup in Naples, how much will it cost?

Estimated costs? For this part of the project we are talking about more than 30 million for reclamation and about 300 million for sealing , then will come the remaining redevelopment works, with construction sites expected to finish between late 2028 and early 2029, well after the America’s Cup is scheduled to begin in the Spring of 2027. It goes without saying, therefore, that the Cup will take place in an area that is only partially redeveloped. It is likely that the municipality and the ministries concerned, in consultation with the two extraordinary commissioners, will rush to secure and reclaim/redevelop, the areas needed for the teams’ bases, in the (perhaps remote) hope that all around, however, will not be a moving construction site.

So how much will the Cup cost in Naples? Or perhaps it is better to say, how much will the America’s Cup cost us? The official demands of Emirates Team New Zealand are not officially known, however the figure that is being murmured and that seems realistic is over 200 million euros (100 of “faith” to have the event, the rest in expenses for onshore facilities), which combined with the costs of reclamation/sealing of the spillway would bring the total to almost 600 million euros. It goes without saying that this figure we are calculating is an “exercise,” since the Bagnoli reclamation project was born before the idea of having the Cup in Naples. Is the game worth the candle?

If this will help speed up the cleanup of Bagnoli, and if it will also allow funds communicated in the project to flow, probably yes, because an important resource would be returned to the area, the city would benefit from significant revenues during the event, triggering a consequent virtuous circuit. The example is Trapani, which in order to host the 2007 Louis Vuitton ACTs was subjected to a “performative mapping” process that redesigned the harbor area, kicked off numerous renovations to the historic center, and effectively transformed the city in a touristic sense.

Sports facilities should not be built as in the case of the Winter Olympics, which impose some sports that then have difficulty being redeployed outside the Games. In short, the game might be worth the candle, considering also how much the city and the territory would gain from the influx of spectators. Provided, however, that we don’t make an Italian impression. With the America’s Cup in Naples, we are staking a lot of credibility on it, an opportunity not to be missed. Because yes, we want this The Rumble in The Jungle.

Mauro Giuffrè