Larry Ellison Talks to ABC about Boats, Budgets and Bases.

The America’s Cup is back in America. Celebrations over the weekend marked the arrival of the Auld Mug via a first class seat and the lobbying for host city began.

BMW ORACLE boss Larry Ellison gave an interview to ABC that touched on some of the issues that will define AC 34 including the venue and what kind of boats might be used.

The interview reveals that if the America’s Cup community agree, then the format of the next event might be skewed towards being more commercial, more spectator friendly and less traditional. Ellison says he will consult with sponsors on some of the decisions, which will include where the racing will take place.

Perhaps BMW ORACLE have media figures that we haven’t seen. Ellison says that young people want to see extreme racing and that a lot of people enjoyed watching the event in Valencia because of the radical nature of the boats. It’s not like fans were ever given a choice of what boats they wanted to watch, and a lot more people watched AC 32 than tuned into the monster trimarans. While most would argue that professional yacht racing needs to provide compelling products, the (non New York Court) jury is still out as to whether the America’s Cup is the right platform to deliver that product.

The interview also talks about budgets, with Ellison throwing out a number of $2-3-4 million for a campaign in AC34.

See the complete interview here….

Can The America’s Cup Ever Lose the ‘Rich White Men’ Label?

The America’s Cup 33rd Edition might have been a triumph for technology, but it did nothing to dispel the perceptions that sailing is a sport for rich white men. Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts have said that the next edition will be fair and be run by independent management, but the consultation process will be initially with the WSTA -  another group of rich white men.

At the moment, the America’s Cup community, despite the mess of America’s Cup 33, are only looking at America’s Cup 34. The nature of the cup doesn’t lend itself to long term strategic change – just event to event management. This is where the organisers of the Volvo Ocean Race and the Extreme Sailing Series have an advantage. Apart from being commercially funded, therefore compelled to create a better product, the leaders of these events can shape the future for not just the next event, but the one after that and so on.

The Volvo Ocean Race has worked closely with external consultants, the Boston Consulting Group, to look at the sport and the event from a completely different angle and as a result, the race has innovated, not just through technology, but by identifying new growth markets.

The America’s Cup is unique and quirky and many love the fact that it is the preserve of rich white men, but for the cup to be a truly global sporting competition in the modern world, it needs to become more diverse. If the sport of NASCAR, with its roots in the deep south of America can embrace diversity, then so too can the America’s Cup.

NASCAR, which is one of the best sports marketing operations on the planet this week celebrated the outstanding accomplishments of pioneering individuals and organizations in the area of diversity at the third annual NASCAR Diversity Luncheon.

Marcus Jadotte, NASCAR’s Managing Director of public affairs said:

“Teams, tracks, sponsors and other stakeholders play an integral role in our efforts to further diversify our sport. The NASCAR Diversity Awards are a small way to say thank you and recognize just a few of those making a difference in creating awareness and opportunity.”

The America’s Cup has an opportunity that doesn’t come along very often. To stop, step back, have a look at how the event should be run in the interests of all stakeholders including the fans, sponsors, the media and it should look to new markets to encourage teams from less traditional sailing markets.

The WSTA, driven by Louis Vuitton’s requirement to sell luxury luggage to growing markets in Hong Kong and the Middle East, have moved their venues east, just like the Volvo Ocean Race, the Extreme Sailing Series and F1. What should America’s Cup 35 look like? Or America’s Cup 36?

Does the America’s Cup have a wider responsibility to the sport? Perhaps not. Perhaps it can continue to be the preserve of rich white men for many years to come, but with each event it will become a little less relevant. As the speculation begins about the best venue for the next America’s Cup, the custodians should think about what would be best for the long term sustainability of the event and not just which city council will give them the most money.

New J-Class Regattas Announced for 2012.

Nobody knows what will happen to BMW ORACLE’s America’s Cup winning trimaran USA17 or Alinghi’s sleek catamaran Alinghi 5. Chances are they will never see another race. The boats were built for a purpose, the 33rd America’s Cup DOG match, but they weren’t built for the purpose in the way the J Class Yachts were.

Perhaps the two giant multihulls will go down in history. They are definitely innovative and some would say beautiful, but they won’t still be racing in 50 years time and it is unlikely that many people will hold the same nostalgia for them as the J Class yachts.

For those who continue to be captivated by the J Class, the  J Class Association has plans for a series of spectacular regattas in England during 2012 – the Olympic Year. This will be the first time in history that more than four of these imposing yachts will race together in a fleet.

The outline plan has received a positive response from J Class owners and event planning is now proceeding. Many yachts in the fleet are now preparing to be on the start line for these 2012 events.

According the to the Offical website of the class, the events will include:

• FALMOUTH – The first regatta will be based in Falmouth, Cornwall, hosted by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club. Races will be held in the bay and along the coastline.
• SOLENT – The second regatta will be based in the Solent, the traditional home of J Class racing in the UK during the 1930s.
• ROUND THE ISLAND – The last race will be held over the original course around the Isle of Wight, for the 1851 Hundred Guinea Cup Race, which is now known as the “America’s Cup”.

More information at http://jclassyachts.blogspot.com/2010/02/2012-j-class-regatta.html

America’s Cup Numbers – Already.

It’s less than 48 hours since the end of the last race of the 33rd America’s Cup, yet organisers have already managed to collate some figures relating to the event. Given the turnaround and the nature of the America’s Cup, these numbers are not from an independent source and there is a question mark over whether third party analysis will be done. Given that the organisers of the event are not the rights holders for the next version of the Cup, there seems little incentive to spend money on auditing the media effect.

Even with the unconventional nature of America’s Cup 33, the event does attract more mainstream media, particularly news media, than most other sailing events. The story of an American entrepreneur spending big to return the Cup to the USA is one that plays well to a wide audience and with any luck, will provide a good base for the buildup to America’s Cup 34.

The Spanish company that had to put the event together at short notice did a good job considering that there was very little time to prepare and unfavourable timings. The media side of the event was innovative with large emphasis place on the use of the web, but delays and uncertainty relating to event timings will have impacted the final results significantly.

TV

Only 39 TV channels acquired the broadcasting rights for the America’s Cup. Most of these were cable or pay networks. Organisers say that the list of broadcasters included Sky (Great Britain), Canal + (France), Teledeporte and Canal 9 (Spain), Eurosport (Europe), Show Time (the Middle East), ESPN (the USA) FOX Live (Australia), TVNZ and Sky (New Zealand).

15 hours of live broadcasting to 216 territories has been estimated. Much of this would have been dead air as the event and the fans waited for courses to be set and weather to be right. Race one lasted about 3 hours. Race two lasted about 2 hours. There were a few hours more of press conferences, but the rest would have been pretty dull television. Many broadcasters, like Eurosport had to reschedule events to cover the lack of content coming from the live feed. In addition to the racing, 27 hours of special programs are estimated to have been produced.

Perhaps mindful of the relatively poor TV numbers, organisers use the household penetration number to suggest a 2,160 million potential viewing audience. To illustrate just how unhelpful that number is, consider that according to worlwide internet usage numbers, YachtSponsorship.com has a potential viewing audience of 6,767 Million.

INTERNET (www.americascup.com)

Despite being launched only days before the event, the official website of the 33rd America’s Cup offered fans the chance to watch live video of the racing via an official stream. The numbers for this part of the event then are more tangible. Organisers report 2,800,000 visits by 1,200,000 unique visitors.

The live feed was watched by 656,000 unique visitors via the official site.  The feed was a sore point amongst many fans, often struggling to keep up with the demand. We did not manage to get the high-res version to work at all, even after giving away email details to download the proprietary player. Luckily, the feed was distributed through 350 other websites, some of whom buffered the stream, causing a slight delay but delivering a significantly better viewer experience.

We will wait to see what the BMW ORACLE numbers are, if they release them, as the American team’s coverage was far superior in terms of content, organisation and technology.

The official social media numbers were 16,000 Facebook fans and 13,000 followers on Twitter in the three official languages of all the communication of the Web (Spanish, English and French)

PUBLIC AT THE MARINA REAL JUAN CARLOS (from the 7th to the 14th of February)

Despite the cold winter weather, a cumulative 201,000 visits were made between the 7th the 14th of February. The biggest single day was the 7th of February 2007, when an estimated 60,000 people attended the event inauguration. More than 2,000 children of Valencian schools attended the race village through organised visits.

LOCAL ACTIVATION AND PROMOTION

In addition to the electronic stuff, there was local marketing of the event which included; 2,000 sq m of canvases, 500 banners, 180 bus stop advertising panels, 1,000 1 minute adverts of the 33rd America’s Cup in the trains of the Mediterranean corridor area, Continuous advertising of 35 seconds in 345 buses of Valencia, 10,000 official programs distributed and a presence in airports of Madrid and Barcelona.

It remains to be seen if there was a return on investment for the sponsors of the event. No doubt that BMW and ORACLE have received fantastic returns and there may be a residual value to the city of Valencia, but even with the limited build up, there were many missed opportunities because winning the race was the primary objective and putting on a show came a long way down the priority list.

BMW ORACLE America’s Cup Win Answers Some Questions and Asks More

Race two of the best of three America’s Cup ‘DOG’ match took place yesterday with minutes to spare. Fans spent hours waiting for racing to get underway in Valencia while the race committee tried to juggle the weather in Valencia with the Notice of Race issued by the defender.

As thousands sat by their computer screens getting increasingly frustrated, the official America’s Cup internet feed showed flags happily fluttering. At one point, a Version 5 America’s Cup boat could be seen sailing in the background while the race missed it’s advertised television slots. Fans switched from sailing to Rugby, the Winter Olympics and the lead up to the Daytona 500, many missing the eventual race.

The Scuttlebutt is that Race organiser Harold Bennett had to deputise helpers to run the race after officials from the defending club refused to comply with his orders to run the race. The ramifications of not holding the second race yesterday would have been far-reaching and Bennett might have single handedly saved the future of the America’s Cup as a televised event.

When it finally started, the race was compelling viewing – at least for 13 miles. Those who had walked away from the Cup as ‘not being a proper match race’ were proved wrong with the second penalty given to Alinghi in as many races. Alinghi once off the line looked like a different boat, leading for much of the first leg due to calling the favoured side of the course. It looked like we had a boat race on our hands.

Once around the top mark though, the BMW ORACLE wing took over and the gap went from 28 seconds at the first mark to 2 minutes 28 at the second. As the sun set, BMW ORACLE had notched up two wins from two races and barring any legal complications had secured the America’s Cup.

Larry Ellison was on board USA 17 as the boat crossed the line, and once it did, speculation began in earnest about America’s Cup 34.

The Golden Gate Yacht Club and BMW ORACLE will now celebrate their win, which has come at great expense. Not only has the financial outlay been significant, the competitors in the 33rd America’s Cup have used up all the goodwill and brand equity of the event. This will have to be built up again and the behaviour and statements of the American team over the last few years will come back to haunt them should they appear to copy any behaviour they accused Alinghi and SNG of being unfair.

Every protocol and rule will be scrutinised against the statements made on the record in a pile of public letters and court submissions. As Kimball Livingston said in his blog:

“With his hostile challenge and gut-level determination to see through a Deed of Gift match if need be, Larry Ellison led our sport into a wilderness of two and a half years, blowing a hole in the development of professional sailing but promising to rescue the Cup from a future that I agree we didn’t want. Had he lost here, I don’t know how he could have excused himself. Now he shoulders the burdens of the Defender of America’s Cup.”

There are now some big questions that the America’s Cup community and the sport of yacht racing are asking. 1) Where will the 34th America’s Cup be sailed? 2) What will the boats be like? 3) What structural changes will take place, if any, in the management of the America’s Cup?

We do know that Mascalzone Latino Team Audi will be the Challenger of Record. The team headed up by Vincenzo Onorato has been a very public supporter of BMW ORACLE and the GGYC over the past couple of years. Lara Ciribì Onorato, newly nominated President of Mascalzone Latino Team Audi will also be measured according to the standards that were imposed on Alinghi and SNG. He said yesterday:

“Thanks to this victory, the America’s Cup will become a high profile sporting event, run by fairer rules than the ones the previous Defender wanted to impose”.

A period of consultation is probably wise. Some statements may be made immediately, but if Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts are true to their word, teams interested in competing in the 34th America’s Cup will be asked to provide their input.

The world, after being frustrated to the point of apathy is now watching again.

America’s Cup coverage is presented by the DARK BLUE BOOK

Do you have an opinion? Open comments are below.

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