Thursday, July 19, 2007

33rd America's Cup Venue Negotiations

It is rumored that Ernesto Bertarelli (Alinghi) has recently had a meeting with the prime minister of Italy, Romano Prodi, to possibly discuss the subject of hosting the 33rd America's Cup at an Italian venue. It is well known that the Louis Vuitton Act in Trapani was a huge success and this port would no doubt be on the list of preferred sites along with others, such as, Marseille (France), Lisbon (Portugal) and maybe even a venue in Greece!

I think that ACM would be silly to effectively stop the momentum gained during the 32nd America's Cup by choosing to go to a different location coupled with the new class that apparently everyone wants so bad. A new venue would require at least a four year lead time and make it very difficult for the smaller teams to find sponsorship. In fact, most of the large European business' have board meetings scheduled for the third quarter of this year, and would make sponsorship decisions at this meeting. Surely ACM are aware of this and will make the obvious (to everyone else in the world) announcement soon that the 33rd America's Cup will be held in Valencia. Let's hope in 2009!

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