Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
It's not going into my pocket.
That is the retort from Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton, over the America's Cup event fee controversy which has included inferences the regatta will be held overseas if New Zealand doesn't cough up.
Speaking to Fairfax, Dalton said: "...to suggest Team New Zealand is trying to extort money out of the government for itself is just trying to cause trouble for no reason.
"To suggest that the team should pay ... firstly I have no idea how we could ... but that would be like asking the All Blacks to pay for the World Cup when it was in New Zealand. That just doesn't make any sense.
Team NZ's Grant Dalton, 36th Americas Cup Protocol Announcement at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, Auckland. 29 September 2017. Photo William Booth / www.photosport.nz
"Some people even think it's going in my pocket, not just the team, it's got that extreme in a couple of cases."
He said TNZ was under the pump to attract the huge amount of sponsorship needed to top the fee up.
"It's not a fee to host an event, an appearance fee, a royalty or anything like that. It's to run the actual event and all the logistics," Dalton told Fairfax.
With the Auckland Council decision on where the America's Cup will be based looming this week, Dalton told Fairfax that a $116m fee being touted by some media was "farcical".
He declared TNZ wants the event broadcast on free-to-air television, after this year's Bermuda Cup regatta was covered by Sky.
Emirates Team NZ helmsman Peter Burling and chief executive Grant Dalton with the America's Cup during their parade in Wellington. 11 July 2017 New Zealand Herald Photograph by Mark Mitchell
"One of our underlying beliefs is that all of New Zealand and anywhere else should have easy access to footage. In our heart we want everyone to be able to watch it," he said.
Italy, home to challenger of record Luna Rossa, was described as a "viable alternative" to Auckland, but Dalton said offers from Russia and the United Arab Emirates would be turned down.
"Those things are real in terms of inquiries, but we keep saying till we are blue in the face that it is not our intention to take it anywhere else," Dalton said.
