America’s Cup revolution, AC Partnership is born: here’s how the Cup changes
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Registration deadline October 31, start of the America’s Cup Partnership starting November 1, this is the chrono schedule that the America’s Cup has given itself and that will see in the coming weeks a turning point, we will see if for the better or not, in the organization and management of the event.
Emirates Team New Zealand and Athena Racing, the defender and challenger of record, respectively, of the upcoming America’s Cup in Naples, have signed an official document in New York that marks the start of America’s Cup Partnership. This is an agreement on the joint management of the event, between defender Challenge of Record and challengers who will register. This sort of central consortium will have a board of directors, and its goal is governance and commercial to manage the event over the long term.
How AC Partnership works
The board will oversee an independent management team, about which more has not been said at this time, that will be responsible for the event’s business operations, from investment planning to solutions for technical and media innovation. Plus there is a choice that represents a revolution: the America’s Cup will be a biennial competition. After Naples 2027, the next edition then could take place as early as 2029.
A similar structure resembles that of several leagues there are in the world of professional sports, such as the Euroleague in Basketball, with teams consorting for the sporting and commercial management of the event.
In this sense, the defender will have to cede some of his decision-making power, although it is likely that he will have different weight in what will be future votes to make the decisions necessary for the development of the new Copa America format.
How the Cup changes with America’s Cup Partnership.
What this will mean in practical terms for the America’s Cup is still difficult to predict entirely. The biennial cadence may push for more and more One Design solutions for the boats, to shorten the construction and development time for the boats of the future. In the meantime, in the next America’s Cup in Naples in 2027, we will see the same AC 75s as last year, modified in deck plan (to accommodate 5-person +1 guest crews), foils and sail plan.
The risk of the Cup primarily is one, that of losing its uniqueness. If the boats gradually became more and more the same from team to team something would certainly be lost in terms of the uniqueness of the regatta. And at the same time the frequency of the two years makes it, in part, a little more like other professional circuits.
There remains behind, however, a history that no sailing event, and few in the sport, have. And no doubt, Partnership or not, the capital of the America’s Cup is precisely its history, something no Sail GP can buy. If the uniqueness of this history, of the iconic owners and sailors who wrote it, is at least partially respected, the America’s Cup will have a bright future.
Instead, on the contrary, with business to come before the technical and sporting quality of the event, turning it into a circus on which to make revenue, with no longer the figures of the great shipowners who dreamed of the Holy Grail, replaced by investment funds and venture capital, here is where the Old Pitcher would definitely lose its history and perhaps itself.
Mauro Giuffrè
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