Michelle Slade
**
Apr 5, 2010, 10:28 AM
Post #1 of 3
(3509 views)
Shortcut
|
|
Venue for next America's Cup
|
Log-In to Post/Reply
|
|
From Beau Vrolyk:
A great deal has been said, and a great deal more will be said, about various venues for the upcoming America's Cup. There is a simple and clear reason that San Francisco is the superior choice. The central San Francisco Bay offers two unequalled natural advantages, which none of the other locations can provide.
First, it's the weather. Much has been said about providing great racing which is fun to watch. What is simply impossible for sponsors and broadcasters to deal with is an unpredictable schedule. Can one really imagine the Super Bowl or the finals of the World Cup in Soccer being "delayed" by variable winds, or canceled by a lack of wind? There are NO serious sponsors and broadcasters who would operate under those conditions. To attract the best sponsorship and viewership, the venue must provide predictable and exciting levels of wind every day, without fail, full stop. Of all the locations discussed, and I've personally sailed in them all, the only place that offers this is the summer time in on San Francisco Bay. Some might dispute this, but a simple tour of weather service records can prove there are plenty of BIG holes in the breeze in all the other suggested venues. We sailors have become accustom to the AP flag signaling a postponement, but a larger audience, which this event truly deserves, will not.
Second, it's the ability to watch the races from the shore. There is no other venue where a patch of water covered in strong reliable winds can be observed directly by hundreds of thousands of people from shore. While we boat owners may enjoy a day on the water to watch a sailboat race, it works in complete opposition to the goal of including a large audience; it extends the elitist image our sport has earned. The shore of San Francisco already hosts a naval air show each year called Fleet Week, and while there are thousands who watch from their boats, the overwhelming majority show up to fill the beaches, piers, and hills of San Francisco. No other city in the United States boasts natural hills that provide such an amphitheater. San Francisco could easily host hundreds of thousands of spectators who could all be closer to the action that anyone has been in recent history, without launching a single spectator boat. I won't bother with the obvious environmental advantages of this, the fuel consumption issue is obvious, the primary point is that this venue could include tens of thousands more participants as spectators than any other, at a modest cost.
If Mr Ellison is serious about building a base of spectators for the America's Cup, and capturing the sponsors who will naturally flock to such a spectator base, then he really has only one choice. He needs races that start every scheduled day at the appointed time and he needs a massive audience that doesn't have to pay a small fortune to be crushed onto a spectator boat. It is my opinion that San Francisco is the best possible venue in the United States to support these goals. In addition, the patch of water described is just outside the front door of Mr. Ellison's own Golden Gate Yacht Club.
|
SCUTTLEBUTT
SEARCH
WHO'S 
LOG IN
