Prepare now for news of lay-offs - not from an already lean Team NZ but from the likes of Swedish syndicate Artemis; Luna Rossa have already pulled the plug on their team of about 100 people and the US$20 million ($26.4 million) they have already sunk into the campaign.
There are also signs that Coutts' move may save a French challenge suffering from lack of money; there is talk of a Japan syndicate, perhaps partly funded by Oracle.
Since Coutts took over as sailing CEO, Oracle have lost BMW, a huge sailing sponsor who were apparently offering Oracle about 40 million ($57.5 million) for their 2013 campaign, Louis Vuitton and now Luna Rossa with their connection to fashion house Prada.
"I think he has just stuffed it up," says one source of Coutts' management of the Cup. "He has made a mess of it and we are paying the price; he fixed it by playing off the cost of coming to Auckland against the lower cost of just going to Bermuda."
That meant Team NZ's government finances, needed to keep the team afloat until sponsorship money kicks in, were lost if there was no Auckland qualifying regatta - threatening the team's overall involvement.
So some of the self-serving rhetoric from Oracle about how exciting the new trimmed-down smaller boats are/will be can be taken with a pail of salt. The America's Cup has always been about grandeur, spectacle and a design race where the fastest boat always wins. Promoting a largely one-design class with some open design elements (foils, rudder) is, to use the old Kiwi vernacular, having five bob each way - and the net result looks like it derived from one of several ordinary catamaran classes, not the history and pomp of the America's Cup. It raises the whole question of what the Cup will become in future.
That is the environment to which Team NZ must now decide whether to hitch their mooring ropes even while they seek redress over the Auckland regatta. However, even though the event is looking far less like the America's Cup, it is not yet beyond the New Zealand team.
As another source said this week: "Someone has to take it off Oracle before they make people sail in Moths [a single-handed foiling cat]."
That is, in a nutshell, Team NZ's advantage if they can only take care of their major disadvantage: Money. In Peter Burling, Blair Tuke and Glenn Ashby, they have three of the fastest small catamaran sailors on the planet, although the Team NZ campaign is now well behind that of others.
With no taxpayer money coming in, Team NZ have to find replacement funding fast and a whole new finance model. Somehow, Team NZ boss Grant Dalton has to stop sponsors from leaving, keep those in the camp happy and find new money to replace that lost, as some likely will be given the Bermuda venue and lack of an Auckland regatta. It is what he is best at - even if the supposed savings on smaller boats are not as simple as made out.
If they make it to the start line, they will likely be competitive - even if they then have to negotiate the next hurdle. Oracle, like all defenders, have arranged things to benefit themselves, so will likely have two race boats and up to four test boats. Team NZ, like other challengers, will have only one race boat but can also build test boats.
That will take, you guessed it, money.
