Editorial: The America's Cup is now anyone's cup

Flashback to the 35th America's Cup won by Emirates Team New Zealand in Bermuda. Photo / Ricardo Pinto, File

EDITORIAL

There has been plenty of talk about how briefly this Auld Mug may be in our hands.

In the lead-up to yesterday's final flourish, Newstalk ZB reported Team New Zealand chief Grant Dalton and Ineos Team UK owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe have two options on the table for the next Cup defence.

One is in New Zealand in 2024, but the other that has been discussed is a one-off defence against Ineos Team UK excluding other challengers on the Isle of Wight next year.

That would return to the Cup to its original home, where the Americans won the first regatta back in 1851.

Should the Cup be hosted elsewhere, the action over these past 10 races shows just how much it will be missed.

In race eight, skill and luck played out in spectacular fashion. Team New Zealand plonked off their foils after a gybe on leg two, apparently due to a rushed decision by the Kiwis.TNZ turned directly into the wind-wash from the back of the Italian boat's sails and turbulence from foils at a critical moment.

The only way Italy could lose was to fall off the foils. And that's what they did.

Race nine was a knock-down, drag-out, head-to-head battle, coming down to the fifth mark where TNZ found a "Kiwi puff of wind" to push Te Rehutai into an unassailable lead.

Race 10 was a lay down misere in which TNZ increased their lead on every mark to ruthlessly put the series to a thrilling end.

All of this has been played out in front of a massive spectator fleet on the water and, rarely these days, a nation glued to free-to-air coverage on television and news sites such as nzherald.co.nz.

There has been much scrutiny of the public money required to stage the America's Cup in Auckland, appropriately so. The Government is spending $136.5 million on the America's Cup; although not all of that has gone to the Cup holders. The Government's total spend includes a host fee of $40m, which was given in tranches to organisers America's Cup Events Ltd, as well as more than $20m to infrastructure on Auckland's waterfront.

Earlier this year TNZ confirmed speculation that it had engaged a British consulting company to invite bids from potential host cities in Asia, the Middle East and Europe for the next defence.

At the time Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton said the move was being considered, to ensure the future viability of the team and guard against a repeat of what occurred after the last successful Cup defence in 2000, when TNZ lost dozens of staff and sailors to other syndicates with bigger chequebooks, most notably Alinghi.

If the only way to keep the team together is to take the trophy overseas, then that is what TNZ must consider. But is the team more important than the host nation which has given so much to hold the America's Cup?