America's Cup: Auckland series decision next month

Emirates Team New Zealand before their race against Oracle Team USA, in Race 16 of the America's Cup, on San Francisco Bay, United States of America. Photo / Brett Phibbs.

An official announcement on whether America's Cup racing will be returning to Auckland is still some weeks away.

The deadline for naming the venue and dates for the America's Cup qualifiers passed over the weekend without a peep from organisers or Team New Zealand, who are bidding to host the series.

America's Cup commercial commissioner Harvey Schiller told the competitor's forum the pre-regatta schedule won't be released to the public until early March.

"An official announcement will be made during the first week of March concerning the venue, dates and format of the America's Cup qualifiers and the America's Cup challenger playoffs."

An America's Cup spokesman confirmed to the Herald this morning the Protocol deadline was met, with "the required information published to the teams".

The reasons for the delay in the official announcement are unknown, but there is speculation it could be because Emirates Team NZ are still awaiting a decision from the Government on whether it will invest in another America's Cup campaign.

Team NZ have made it clear without tax-payer money they will be unable to launch a credible campaign, but their bid for government funding hinged on being awarded hosting rights for the qualifying series. Now that hurdle is thought to have been cleared, Team NZ are waiting on official sign-off from the Government.

Prime Minister John Key gave a strong indication over the weekend the Government would greenlight funding for Team NZ, provided Auckland were awarded the qualifying series.

Key told Newstalk ZB having America's Cup racing in Auckland it would make the event "a much better proposition from the taxpayer's point of view", with all five challengers and defender Oracle Team USA expected to base themselves in New Zealand over the 2016-2017 summer.

"If [Team NZ] host what is effectively the Louis Vuitton challenger series, or a decent part of that in Auckland, that's going to bring in teams for a long period of time, that's going to bring in worldwide television audiences, it's going to showcase Auckland," he said.