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Kiwi Am Cup bid shaky as Spain firms

Hosting decision delay helps faint prospects of a home defence in 2024, but devil is in the detail.

Duncan Johnstone duncan.johnstone@stuff.co.nz

The delay in the America’s Cup hosting announcement raises faint hopes of a late reprieve for Auckland, but don’t hold your breath.

The decision was due last Friday, but Team New Zealand and the Royal Yacht Squadron have postponed that indefinitely as they seek more details from the bids from Ireland, Spain and Saudi Arabia.

Crucially, they will seek to get their own officials at these venues for first-hand impressions, something not possible at a significant phase of the process in recent weeks as the MIQ system was put on hold.

It will also give them time to seek more information from the 11th hour effort by rich-lister Mark Dunphy to provide the funds to keep the defence in Auckland.

Team NZ have never backed away from a desire to sail again in Auckland, but not at the expense of their potential success. It seems they still see that vulnerability under the current Dunphy scenario.

‘‘We don’t have a proposal, just simply an indication to try and find the money. I’m not sure you’d write a business plan based on hope,’’ Team NZ CEO Grant Dalton told Sunday Star-Times of the latest communication from Dunphy, delivered just two days before the expected announcement.

‘‘At this point there is no proposal.

‘‘There are fundamental questions that we asked back in August which haven’t been addressed in any shape or form. It’s nowhere in our minds.’’

So there’s still much to do at home and abroad to finalise a massive decision. Dalton says they won’t be compromised as they work through the process against a backdrop of a social media campaign to ramp up public sentiment for a home defence.

‘‘It has never really been so much about Auckland, the question is, should Team New Zealand financially cripple itself to stay here and then watch it unwind, whimper and badly lose?’’ he said.

‘‘I’m not sure that’s the right way for the team to operate, and it’s certainly not the way the team thinks.

‘‘This whole ‘Keep the Cup in Auckland’ narrative that is being run up in the social channels ... well there is another social channel that could basically say, ‘let’s not lose the Cup in Auckland’.

‘‘We will not let 2003 happen again,’’ he added in reference to that disastrous Auckland defence put up by a weakened team after the double triumphs of 1995 and 2000.

Dalton wants to oversee a successful hat-trick and the hosting venue is central to that, particularly with its hosting fee central to the team’s funding.

‘‘We will get this done as soon as we can, but we have also got to make the right decision too . . . the right decision for the team, the right decision for the Cup. The wrong decision is just to give the Cup away.

‘‘Let’s not forget we are up against some of the world’s wealthiest people and some of the world’s most powerful countries who will just love Team New Zealand weakened.

‘‘If I was in their position, I‘d be the same.

‘‘We are a sports team, we have a responsibility to each other and to produce a winning combination, and we will always go that way.

‘‘This is about winning the America’s Cup rather than setting ourselves up to lose it.

‘‘The team will always come as a priority, that’s how we think collectively and that’s one of the reasons why we are so strong culturally – because we believe in ourselves.’’

Cork in Ireland is battling a political bunfight over funding with time against them. Funding appears no issue for the government-backed national bid in Spain. That has growing allure, while Jeddah’s offer in Saudi Arabia also appears solid though Team New Zealand wait to learn more through a first-hand look.

Team New Zealand see the Spanish multi-venue bid as workable, raising the prospect of having a world series warmup event in the north, while the America’s Cup could play out in the south and east.

‘‘This is about winning the America’s Cup rather than setting ourselves up to lose it.’’ Team NZ CEO Grant Dalton

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2021-09-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282677575426127

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