After 18 years, the America's Cup will once again be held in America, and in an area that is ideal from a sailing perspective. Nevertheless, the battle for the cup threatens to become a sporting farce.
Following previous eliminations, the match of the 34th Americas Cup will now be played between Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz in autumn 2013. The defender made the announcement on New Year's Eve, thus meeting the self-imposed deadline of announcing the venue in 2010 down to the minute.
However, the decision does not offer much more than the realisation that sailing is now taking place where most observers suspected it would from the outset. With its safe wind conditions, San Francisco Bay is an ideal sailing area, as the races of the 2003 Moët Cup showed.
Otherwise, however, it does not look like a successful event at the moment. There are only four official challengers so far, only one of which, the Swedes, seem to have their budget halfway together. Even the first and therefore most important challenger, the Italian team Mascalzone Latino, openly admits that they are struggling to survive.
The registration deadline is 31 March 2011 and the entry fee has been drastically reduced to 100,000 dollars. For the new concept of defenceman boss Russell Coutts, it seems to be getting tight.
Lars Bolle
Chief Editor Digital
