The idea was good, but success failed to materialise. On Friday, the opportunity for potential sponsors to join the American team Sausalito Challenge from San Francisco came to an end. Nobody placed the 45 million dollar minimum bid on the internet auction site eBay.
Nevertheless, initiator John Sweeney considers the campaign a success. "Our unusual approach has given us a lot of publicity and enabled us to present our sponsorship package to a wide audience. That's a lot for a team that was only formed two months ago. We were able to show that we are thinking about new ways of doing business, and that is one of the most important prerequisites for success in the America's Cup."
Sausalito Challenge has now assembled a team of experienced AC sailors and has a competent designer in mind. The only thing missing is a title sponsor. Sweeny admits that such a sponsor is reluctant to make contact via the Internet. But there have been some private contacts in the meantime.
The American Volvo Ocean Race project team Kan Do, which had taken the same route in its search for sponsors, also had to record a failure. Nobody came forward by the deadline last Saturday. The same applies to Volvo Team Adventure, which had set nine million dollars as the minimum bid.
