Bruce Cotterill is a professional director, speaker and adviser to business leaders. He is the author of the book The Best Leaders Don’t Shout, and host of the podcast Leaders Getting Coffee.
OPINION
Another instalment of yachting’s America’s Cup is now behind us. And another victoryfor Team New Zealand is in the bag. For the record, Team NZ won the best of 13 finals series by 7-2. You’d probably call it a convincing result.
It’s the third time in a row Team NZ has been successful. The New York Yacht Club held the world’s oldest sporting trophy for 132 years. They successfully defended it 24 times in that period before losing ultimately to Australia II in 1983.
Australia’s win opened the door for a broader range of syndicates to participate, including New Zealand. From the very start, our team, through KZ7, captured the imagination with our underdog status and an approach to innovation inspired by our number eight wire ethic. And from the outset, we’ve been incredibly competitive. We’ve won it five times since 1995. We’ve been the defeated finalist on four occasions.
Like many New Zealanders, I love sport. I especially love seeing our Kiwi athletes going up against the best in the world. The All Blacks are the obvious ones, but who can resist the achievements of our Silver Ferns or Lydia Ko, Scott Dixon and Dame Lisa Carrington? It’s a list that goes on and on.
I’ve been fortunate to have been at some of the best sporting competitions in the world. I’ve seen the All Blacks win a couple of World Cup finals. I’ve seen us lose a couple too. I’ve sat centre court at Wimbledon and joined the circus that is Formula One on a number of occasions. I’ve stood on the roadside and watched the long-distance heroes of Ironman Triathlon and some of the world’s best marathon runners.
I’ve also been out on the water in Auckland, New Zealand, watching America’s Cup racing. It’s a spectacle made even greater by the participation of the Kiwi fan base, on the wharves and on the water, enthusiastically cheering for their team. I’ve seen racing the old way with flapping sails and hardened sailors, hanging on to ropes and climbing the mast searching for a breeze. And I’ve seen the new way with foils and cyclors and incredible speeds.
The last time we defended the Cup was in 2021. Our damaged communities emerged from their Covid bunkers with a newfound enthusiasm for the foiling giants as they skimmed across the Waitematā at speeds television doesn’t do justice to. That 2021 regatta was really special. Thousands of boats on the Waitematā harbour, lining the course and creating something of a stadium surrounding the arena. In the glorious summer weather, one of the most spectacular sporting extravaganzas was settled 7-3, with Team New Zealand winning another one.
It was as good as any sports event in the world.
Huge crowds at the Viaduct Basin in Auckland, as people watch the undocking of Luna Rossa and Team NZ prior to racing in the 2021 America's Cup. Photo / Alex Burton
The mood captured by those home America’s Cup regattas suggested Kiwis felt we were more than fans. We were stakeholders. As stakeholders we hung tough, day after day, as we watched our 8-1 lead evaporate to an 8-9 loss in San Francisco in 2013. Further back still, we rallied against “dirty” Dennis Connor and his Stars & Stripes effort. He called us “losers” in return.
We should be glowing in the aftermath of another dominant win in the event we love so much, but something is missing this time around. The ownership, the engagement and the pride is less obvious than at any time before.
Just as the 2021 event captured our imagination as we re-emerged from our Covid-inspired hibernation, this 2024 event could so easily have helped our ailing economy off its grazed and bloodied knees.
But the decision to take the 2024 America’s Cup defence to the other side of the world has made some of us feel like our stakeholder status no longer matters.
At a time when our marine industry, hospitality sector and tourism operators could really do with the sort of economic boost the Auld Mug brings, Team New Zealand, our Team New Zealand, made the decision to defend the Cup in foreign waters. Barcelona won the affections of the Team New Zealand’s decision-makers, despite opposition from the locals and their “anti-tourism” protests. As a result, the event, our event, was played out in the middle of the night in a land far away.
Rightly or wrongly, Team NZ was once perceived to be a venture owned and operated by the Royal NZ Yacht Squadron with a view to acting in the best interests of the sport and its constituents, including those represented in the marine industry.
But it seemed to be more than that too. Perhaps we’ve been naive to think Team NZ was representing us. But for many years we purchased their red socks, and as taxpayers, ratepayers and donors, we contributed to their funding. Many of us, justifiably, felt some ownership. Besides, they carry our name.
Ah yes, the name. If the team was called Spark or Fonterra or for that matter Dalton Racing, our connection would be less. But they’re wearing our badge. And we feel like they’re a part of us as a result.
And now, it feels like that connection has been lost. They’ve taken the NZ out of Team NZ.
Grant Dalton, CEO of Emirates Team New Zealand and 37th America’s Cup. Photo / SailingShots by Maria Muiña
As we all know, the decision to take our Cup defence away was about money. Team New Zealand’s decision-makers felt retaining the cup would take a bigger budget than could be generated from within this small country. The current word is that the next defence will be held in an overseas port also.
If we take that decision to its logical conclusion, there’s a chance the Cup won’t return. Perhaps Team NZ is destined to become just another Kiwi gun for hire plying its trade in return for a payday on the international stage. Just like triathlon’s Hayden Wilde or tennis’ Lulu Sun or golf’s Ryan Fox.
But that’s not what we stakeholders expected when we bought in. And it’s not what many of us would like to see.
To get the Cup back we need to win on four fronts. Firstly we must have a telegenic venue. We need to show an ability as hosts, to deliver the event. Then we have to convince the teams that they can come here and enjoy a great competition in one of the world’s best sailing cities. Finally, we need money.
I think we’re okay on the first three. My own view is that we should be able to hold our own as a venue for events of this nature. We’ve done it before. And while the TV coverage of the Barcelona event was excellent, I didn’t see flotillas of boats on the water creating a stadium-like atmosphere for the racers. Of course, those of us who bothered to watch saw crowds of Kiwis on shore at Barcelona cheering our boat as it left or returned to port each day. But as some of the people whom I know and who were there said: “It wasn’t quite the same.” We can do a better job of that stuff.
We’ve proven ourselves as hosts before too. Our support structures, boat builders and marine industry operators are second to none. So we can support and run the regatta and do so well. Our city is well-proven as a location loved by foreign teams. And so it seems the big issue is money.
To get the money we need a change in attitude at every level. The Government, the city, big business and Team New Zealand themselves.
Perhaps we can take a lesson from the French. The Tour de France is a three-week-long cycle race around France. It’s also a three-week-long tourism advertisement for the country that hosts it. Government, city and sports representatives combine their efforts to deliver the event. I have no idea how much the annual advertising or promotion spend is for France Tourism outside the great bike race. But I would imagine that “Le Tour” makes up a fair chunk of the budget.
If you follow the Tour de France on television, you see much more than a bike race. There is countryside, wineries, castles and their spectacular cities, with race commentators reading scripts like tour group leaders. Such coverage does not happen by accident. It’s part of the plan. The bike race is the attraction. But beyond that it’s all business, with the big prize being the promotion of the country and the tourism that follows.
One of the great opportunities with the America’s Cup is that it runs for months not weeks. Let’s face it, Auckland’s Harbour looks great on TV during an America’s Cup race. Add to that video vignettes from around the country featuring our landscapes, harbours, mountains, athletes, winemakers and farmers and we might just have enough for a globally recognisable six-month-long tourism promotion package, one that drives benefits for years to follow.
But we have to think about it a different way. And we will need all the parties on the same page.
The great New Zealand yachting commentator, Peter Montgomery, once said that “the America’s Cup is now New Zealand’s Cup”. It’s up to us whether it stays that way.
