Valencia gets the golden deal

James Boyd reports from the America's Cup venue announcement in Geneva

America's Cup Management CEO Michel Bonnefous is keeping schtum over the exact details of why 'Tahiti' (as the America's Cup 2007 venue has been codenamed over past weeks) will be the Spanish port of Valencia rather than the breezy Lisbon suburb of Cascais.

"The choice was complex. The main criteria was the sports capability of the venue," explained the sharp suited, bespectacled Harvard Business School graduate succinctly at today's announcement held in the James Bond-esque setting of the President Wilson hotel on the shore of Lake Geneva. In other words the decision, which Bonnefous claims was made only this morning, was based primarily on the sailing conditions. In light of the choice of Valencia this seems slightly unconvincing given the Portugese option was very much the sailor's favourite - it is on the Atlantic coast and offered the possibility of big wind and waves, a repeat of the tremendous conditions experienced during the 1987/8 Cup in Fremantle.

It is believed that Valencia came out on top, because while racing off Cascais might have offered more lively conditions, as a venue it was possibly the more volatile with a threat of disputes with the local fisherman, etc. In contrast Valencia has a moderate sea breeze you can set your watch by, a race course which is just a 15 minute ride from the campaign bases and sufficient depth to allow the laying of marks close to the shore giving spectators a bird's eye view of the action.

In fact the blurb handed out by ACM states they have been looking for a venue offering 'reliable' rather than exciting wind conditions. This was to avoid a repeat of the Auckland scenario where a ridiculous number of days were cancelled due to either too much or too little wind. This broke up the continuity of the event, turning what might have proved good television into a heavily punctuated nightmare for broadcasters who had paid good money to hold the TV rights to the event.

This position was confirmed by Michel Bonnefous. "The wind conditions are very good for what we want to do. They are very reliable and steady. To give you an example - the worst case scenario is how many days you can’t sail. In Auckland there were 15 days. In Valencia in the summer months it is one day. We are more or less guaranteed to sail which will be great for sharing with the public our passion for sailing."

While there are prospective changes to the America's Cup Class rule imminent, the choice of venue will also have a profound effect on the new generation of boats to be built. The consensus is that the Valencia sea breeze consistently clocks in at 10-20 knots (although some suggest an even smaller window of 13-18 knots) and thus boats will return to the San Diego format where they are optimised for a much smaller band of conditions than they were for Auckland which was more of a prepared-to-do-battle-in-anything scenario. Also the wind is said to be not that shifty - thus there is the prospect of the racing being less tactical with greater than ever reliance being placed upon boat speed.

Today's announcement in Geneva was attended by 350 people. With Marcus Hutchinson, ACM's new Head of Media and Communications acting as master of ceremonies, a number of VIPs were invited up on stage. These included Cup heros such as Dennis Conner, Chris Dickson and Alinghi's Jochen Schuemann and Brad Butterworth. A notable absentee was Russell Coutts. A scurrilous rumour was circulating that Coutts didn't approve of the choice of venue, but more likely was Coutts' scrupulous desire to maintain maximum distance between America's Cup Management and Alinghi for political reasons. "We don’t have a lot to do with this event. Alinghi is just another team," Brad Butterworth told us unconvincingly. "Russell doesn’t have anything to do with ACM. He is happy for me and Jochen to be here and fly the flag and we’ll see how ACM goes..."

With the scene setting out of the way, the main announcements were delivered by Michel Bonnefous, Ernesto Bertarelli, Jose Salinas, head of the Valencia bidding committee, Pierre Yves Firmenish, Commodore of the Societe Nautique de Geneve and Yves Carcelle, president of Louis Vuitton.

An unexpected surprise was the news that the French leather goods manufacturer are back on board as a principle partner. Yves Carcelle commented that Louis Vuitton have been trying to promote the America's Cup and their challenger series for the last 20 years. With their presence confirmed for 2007 the challenger series will once again be fought for the Louis Vuitton Cup but this time round their involvement will extend beyond just the challenger series, supporting the America's Cup itself and the warm-up events to be held in the build-up to the Cup (see below). Next year is Louis Vuitton's 150th anniversary as a company and they are likely to making special celebrations around the ACC 'pre-regattas'.

After much thanking of everyone the announcement of the venue was finally made by Yves Firmenish as the conference went live globally on Eurovision and in Switzerland on TSR TV.

Following this all ears from the assembled press and campaign representatives were upon Bonnefous as to the reasons for the committee's decision. The venue vetting process was carried out by a committee comprising himself, Ernesto Bertarelli and Firmenish. From more 50 applicants these were whittled down to eight on 5 June, then five (when Porto Cervo, Elba and Barcelona were dropped) before the final four were established when Palma was struck off. Bonnefous would say not more about the selection process other than it was primarily based on wind conditions.

Albeit not as painstaking as a prospective bid to host the Olympic games, the 'Candidate Files' provided by the potential host ports were still extensive. Valencia's was 180 pages long and included all the information relating to their holding the event from the meteorology, the infrastructure, etc. This was formally presented to the ACM committee on 21 August.

Eminent Italian journalist Luca Bontempelli suggested that the choice of Valencia may have been influenced by their offering 60 million Euros, instead of the 50 million Euros on the table from the other bidding cities. "I'm not going into details of the selection process," replied Bonnefous sticking to his guns. "The bids were much of a muchness. We were mainly considering the sporting side, how the spectators can come close to the racing. The village is just next to where the regatta takes place, it is like a sailing stadium and they have an approach which we like very much."

Ernesto Bertarelli thanked all those ports which had submitted bids and said that he hoped they would be able to host some of pre-Cup regattas scheduled by ACM in the ports that didn't make it - Naples, Marseilles and Cascais.

Jose Salinas took the microphone to explain about the Valencia bid: "We have been working on this hard since the very beginning in order to host the oldest sporting event in the world. Valencia has prepared in a strong manner to be the host for the 32nd America’s Cup and we have presented a project that combines the reliability of the winds, the proximity to the sea shore so that spectators can see that racing and in a city that combined the modernity and the ability to work with the organisers of an America’s Cup championship."

The build-up

More details emerged today over the program of events that will lead up to America's Cup 2007. These will be start with an Alinghi-organised event next June in Newport, effectively a return match from this year's Oracle-organised Moet Cup in San Francisco.

In 2004 the boats will race under the existing version of the ACC rule, after this on the new version of the rule. The race program, as hinted upon when the Protocol was announced in Auckland in March, will include some fleet racing as well as match racing.

The challenger acceptance period will run from 15 December 2003 for a year. After this it will still be possible to enter up until 30 June 2005, but a late entry fee will be required.

2004 Early Feb - meeting for teams in Valencia March - dates and venues to be confirmed for 2004 pre-regattas 19-27 June - Alinghi-organised regatta in Newport, RI 5 Sept - First pre-regatta (sailed under the current ACC rule) probably in Valencia Sept-Oct - two further regattas to be sailed 31 Oct - dates and venues for 2005 pre-regattas to be confirmed 2005 TBA - three or four pre-regattas (sailed under the new version of the ACC rule). One is likely to be held in Valencia in mid-May 2006 TBA - two pre-regattas to be sailed in Valencia 2007 3 April - unveiling of challengers and defenders 4-7 April - fleet race regatta 16 April - Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series begins 2 June - Louis Vuitton final (best of nine races) 23 June - 32nd America's Cup match starts

Looking at this schedule it is interesting that both the Louis Vuitton and America's Cup itself are being held earlier in the season. Most expected the events to be held in June to September with a possible break in the middle to avoid the peak of the European summer holiday season. One theory about moving the event forward is to avoid it conflicting with other major European sporting events such as the Tour de France cycling.

One worry is that while the pre-regattas will undoubtedly prove great for the class and will bridge the gap between events as well as helping to ramp up public interest prior to the America's Cup itself, it will also increase substantially the amount it will cost challengers to mount a Cup campaign. The pre-regattas from 2006 and on will be compulsory attendance for challengers. Bill Trenkle, Dennis Conner's loyal second-in-command told thedailysail that compared to their relatively modest campaign in Auckland, to challenge this time round they would effectively have to double their budget. In most of his interviews Dennis Conner's repeated theme was 'mounting a challenge is too expense. The only way I am going to be able to do this is with the help of a private backer,' sentiments no doubt echoed by many of the other potential campaigns.

While America's Cup Management are developing the America's Cup in a well judged way, the cost of challenges many fear will push underfunded teams out of the running, something which no one wants. Added to this is teams will be up some serious might in the form of Alinghi and if they make it through, Oracle, both of whom not only have one Cup cycle under their belts but proved to be the top teams in Auckland earlier this year. Both of whom are also effectively running four year campaigns in the build-up to the 2007 event.

More issues relating to this may become apparent tomorrow at the a challengers meeting in Valencia. More details are also expected to emerge about the amendments to the America's Cup Class rule that is believed to 'turbo' the boats for the next event. The final version of the new rule will be published on or before 15 December.

More photos from the proceedings on the following pages