The mildly to seriously dilapidated docks in San Francisco have always been the bone of contention when it comes to attracting the public closer to the action and entertaining them in a variety of ways. An important goal of the organisers and the city fathers is to bring some of the 16 million or so tourists who are supposedly drawn to San Francisco every year to the Cup events. The expansion of the centrally located pier buildings 27/29 into the so-called America's Cup Park on the Embarcadero waterfront is now set to create the desired focal point.
The centrepiece will be the 9,000-capacity auditorium and the open-air concert stage, where veteran rocker Sting (The Police) will open the America's Cup concert series on 2 June. The docks will also provide space for team bases, interactive exhibitions and catering outlets to cater for the physical well-being of the audience.
According to the America's Cup Event Authority, the event space will be used for paid and free events, such as the well-known and popular public viewing on a large screen from football. Construction is scheduled to begin in spring 2013 and events are to run from mid-May to the beginning of October.
