Americas Cup

[Giulietta]

what I think..

1) Altough here we are a large sailing comunity in sailnet, truth is the percentage of people that actually sail and people that like to see race boats sail (pretty boring to an outsider, due to complexity and lack of excessive movement - kinda like when I saw a Nascar race...) around the World and each country, is very small compared to the amount of people than don't care about it. So broadcasting for a small comunity is not profitable (unless a lot of advertisment is done, then no one watches), therefore no TV channel wants to get into it.

2) We all know that the big resourcefull broadcasters are in the US. Now the races were not in the US, and whatever is not in the US "backyard" or "outside activities of the USA" does not interest the US broadcasters, they're too busy with Paris Hilton, and Amos....so sailing..forget about it...besides we're out of it any way....

3) Media and TV coverage in Europe is a bit tricky and heavily controlled and moderated by the Governments and other constraints. TV channels struggle already to stay in business with the current broadcasts, so broadcasting something that interests only a 5% comunity is a risky move, non rewarding one.

4) The events were hels in Spain, not exactly a TV rich country, Spanish TV is pretty bad and uninteresting, and altough they had the wonderfull opportunity to host it, they didn't know how to mediatize and broadcast to the World...as usual...typical.....

5) I watch the America's Cup since the 80's and let me tell you, outside Eurosports or the sailing channel here in Europe, it never had a decent media and broadcast level, I allways had to struggle to see the races....

6) Losing the "country taste" also made it un-interesting, for those that are there...we don't know who's who...America is sponsored by Germany...the Swiss with no ocean win, NZ is sponsored by the arabs...what do you expect...it lost the sense of Colour, like it had...

7) The "cinema" and bad stories that come out of that "joke" the America's Cup became, looses people and loses interest....suddenly the interest is no longer the boat, but what colour Bertarelli's boxer shorts are!!!!!!!

my list goes on and on....

I used to love it, I used to "idolate" those guys...now....I don't really give a ****....

In my opinion should be a race between countries, as it started (do you know its the oldest cup in the World??), where the boats are designed by nationals of the Country (not import architects from other countries), built in the country, SAILED TO THE LOCATION, not flown, crewed by nationals of the country, painted with the Country's colours....

now its bulshit....nice boats, love the tech stuf...but its all bull ****...just like formula 1, I can't keep track of who's wgo anymore...un-interesting

[Valiente]

I saw the finish of the final race on the Canadian national news, but they prefaced it by saying "you don't have to like sailing to appreciate this sort of finish..." which took the excitement out of it for me, frankly, almost as if the news broadcaster had apologized in advance for announcing results from the Special Olympics.

[Faster]

I'm with you, Giu, on the nationality issues - these days, regardless of which "country" wins it, you can be sure it's got some Kiwi crew. No knock on the NZers, they are probably the nation with with highest general awareness of sailing and sailboat racing. As a Canadian I'll take comfort in the fact that Alinghi's well-regarded midbowman Curtis Blewitt is from B.C.

But it's not a nationality contest anymore, and that has taken the event down a notch.

There is still some trickle-down in terms of technological advances, but mostly only for those with deep enough wallets to take advantage.

[ReverendMike]

I just saw that there is going to be a new class design for the 33rd Cup. Deliberately screwing the new teams? or helping them by leveling the playing field? And most importantly, do I really care about the answer?

[BADG]

I watched the LV finals and the AC finals. LV was a snoozer and the AC was riveting, I couldn't wait for the next race. I thought it the best AC in years, I hope that the new class does more to make it even better for the 33rd - that will be determined by whatever the new class ends up being I suppose.