America's Cup: Sardinian Tourism Minister 'definances' hosting bid
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 12 Apr 2023 19:00 AEST
12 April 2023
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli - LEQ12 - sailing off Cagliari - Sardinia will not be hosting an AC40 regatta © Ivo Rovira / America's Cup
The opportunity to host a second AC40 regatta between the six teams entered in the 2024 America's Cup has been declined by the Region of Sardinia (RAS).
The decision comes after six months of meetings, negotiation and provision of supporting documents between RAS and America's Cup Event Ltd (ACE).
A similar decision took just a month by the Catalonian port of Vilanova i la Geltrú, which will host the first AC40 regatta over four days between 14-17th September 2023.
The Region of Sardinia were offered the same America's Cup World Series regatta that they had previously authorised to take place in April 2020, and provided the cost was comparable, the re-hosting decision should have been a straightforward exercise.
Late last week, international sailing journalist Fabio Pozzo, a well-connected America's Cup correspondent for the Italian newspaper La Stampa, reported in a series of three stories that the opportunity to host a second AC40 regatta between the six teams entered in the 2024 America's Cup has been declined.
On April 1, Minister Chessa wrote to ACE noting that they had heard about the Vilanora hosting via the media, meaning that Cagliari would therefore not be the first event and claiming that ACE had not provided all the relevant information and that, in Chessa's view, indicated that ACE wasn't interested in staging an event in Sardinia.
Three days later, on April 3, Grant Dalton, CEO of ACE, wrote to Minister Chessa. "You will remember several weeks ago, I made a trip specifically to Cagliari to meet with a local and reputable Events company. This meeting followed prior extensive planning (both logistical and budget), was four hours long and finished with an agreed way forward. You will agree this is hardly the actions of someone who has "ceased to be interested" [as claimed by Chessa in a letter to ACE/Dalton on April 1].
The coup de grâce was delivered by Sardinia Region Minister of Tourism Giovanni Chessa in a letter dated April 6, 2023, reported by La Stampa, saying, "the interest of the Region of Sardinia has failed...".
The Vilanova hosting agreement took just a month to negotiate from the initial proposal to the final agreement, with ACE saying they were required to provide less information than was supplied to RAS and Minister Chessa.
Chessa claimed that the Sardinians had been led to believe that they would host the first AC40 regatta and intimated that Vilanora being allocated the first AC40 event was the reason for the RAS bid being "definanced". However, ACE says that the possibility of Sardinia being the first to stage an AC40 event was mentioned only at their first meeting in August 2022.
Whether Sardinia would have been the inaugural AC40 regatta would have been stated in a contract, which after six months of discussion, was never circulated in draft or final form.
The position of RAS is even more difficult to understand given that they had previously contracted to hold the first America's Cup World Series regatta in April 2020 as part of the 2021 America's Cup.
Two other ACWS events were scheduled for 2020 - Portsmouth in June 2020, which was also cancelled soon after the Cagliari event, and Auckland held in mid-December 2020. All three were to be sailed in AC75s.
In contrast to Cagliari, ACE say the same hosting negotiation/discussion with Vilanova took just four weeks to conclude - with a plan, a cost, a draft agreement, and a final contract being exchanged. The announcement of Vilanova as an AC40 regatta venue was made on March 17, 2023, which pointed to a more proactive and productive approach taken by the officials in Barcelona, Vilanova, Catalonia and Spain towards the 37th America's Cup.
According to La Stampa, the event at Vilanova will cover four days from September 14-17, 2023, while the Cagliari regatta was scheduled a month later from October 12-15, 2023.
La Stampa reported that the cost of the AC40 event was €6 million (NZD$10.5million), including VAT. The event is expected to have a significant local economic impact, calculated at €14.28 million for the venue.
It is reasonable to assume that Vilanova signed for a similar deal and that the second AC40 regatta venue will be contracted on a comparable basis.
In both regattas, ACE is responsible delivery of the event - with the assistance of a contracted Event company.
Negotiations are believed to be under way to select the second AC40 venue. A third event will be held in AC75s. It will be the first and only time that Emirates Team New Zealand as Defender will race against the Challengers before the 37th America's Cup Match starting on October 12, 2024, in Barcelona.
La Stampa stories on the Cagliari hosting:
Part 1 - April 8
Part 2 - April 9
Part 3 - April 10
Part 4 - April 11
Part 5 - April 12