Making sure the dollars flow Team NZ's way

By JULIE ASH

Come the end of the America's Cup, Team New Zealand executive director Tony Thomas has one appointment he is determined to keep.

It is not with a sponsor, supplier or team member, but with the ski slopes near Queenstown.

"I am going to go skiing for two months, no matter what happens," he said.

Through his Team New Zealand role, Thomas is also the event director of America's Cup 2003 and the manager of the American Express Viaduct Harbour - and if anyone is in need of a well-deserved break come March, it will be him.

"It's pretty hectic, but I enjoy a challenge," he said.

Thomas' involvement in the America's Cup comes after a long history in sports sponsorship and marketing.

After graduating from Victoria University, he travelled to Europe and joined Philip Morris Europe as a promotions manager, which involved working with brands such as Marlboro, Philip Morris International, Merit and 7-Up.

At that time Formula One motor racing was just starting to become a global sport and he was involved with Marlboro McLaren, the team who won three world championships.

He also helped 7-Up become the main sponsor of the skiing World Cup.

After nine years in Europe, he worked in Australia before returning to New Zealand and a job at Mackay King Advertising, which later became Saatchi & Saatchi.

"When I was at Saatchi & Saatchi I took 18 months off and ran Chris Dickson's Whitbread campaign.

"That introduced me into yachting and then Peter Blake asked me to become the event director for the America's Cup.

"When Team New Zealand came back from the States they knew everything about how to win a boat race, but they didn't know how to put an event on. So they asked me to manage that."

Thomas' sole role in 2000 was event director; his job was to obtain sponsors, market the event and generally make sure everyone had the resources to run the regatta.

"Last time was pretty hard because no one knew the parameters. Nobody knew how big it was going to be. Nobody knew how many people were going to turn up.

"We were working closely with the police and the Auckland Regional Council, and everyone was learning.

"Last time we had to negotiate things like air space management, which had never been done before.

"We had to find out how to control the air space over a public piece of water so only certain helicopters could fly over, to protect the event for the rights holders.

"Special legislation had to be passed. So we had to do a lot of things that we had never done in New Zealand before.

"This time the same crew is there and it is a lot easier to bring everything together."

Thomas' role this time is much wider than in 2000.

"With [Team New Zealand chief executive] Ross Blackman I do the commercial side of Team New Zealand and that involves fundraising, sponsor fulfilment, licensing, marketing - the Loyal campaign and contracts - and I look after the whole host broadcast."

He is the first to admit that finding money to finance the defence has not been as easy.

"It was a hell of a mountain to climb after what happened last time," he said, referring to the defections.

"Our sponsors hadn't been spoken to for three or four months and once a sponsor goes cold it is hard to reignite them.

"That winter [2000] was economically pretty bad, then a year later, September 11 hurt us internationally.

"We had a couple of opportunities in France and America, which were working along nicely, then after September 11 they didn't know what the world was going to be like for the next 12 months and said no.

"All our budget went up by 50 per cent and to try to find that money in New Zealand has been difficult.

"We are comfortable, but we are not fully there yet."

Ironically, the two syndicates battling it out in the Louis Vuitton challenger series final are two of the best funded on the block.

Larry Ellison's Oracle BMW Racing have had $200 million to splash around and Russell Coutts' Alinghi have $120 million.

Team New Zealand will not disclose their exact budget, but it is believed to be around $80 million.

"We have a great saying here that sometimes too much money spoils you," Thomas said. "We'd love to have the money in the bank and it is hard for us because we have to keep raising it.

"That is the part I am jealous of - they just got the money on day one.

"We all have to be disciplined in our expenditure and ask ourselves does it make the boat go faster? Do we have fancy offices or do we use second-hand furniture. We have second-hand furniture because that doesn't help the boat."

If Team New Zealand lose the cup, Thomas said, the chances of finding enough money to fund a challenge were slim.

"That is my personal opinion. To try to raise twice as much again is pretty hard unless you get an overseas sponsor that wanted to enter an up-and-running team. Then that [cash] could become available, but it would have to happen fairly quickly."

With less than a month to go until the America's Cup proper starts, there is a perception that the hype surrounding the event is yet to reach the levels of last time.

"I think last time the event was geared to the audience and it had a good build-up, longer round-robins, more racing in January and February," Thomas said.

"This time, I think the challengers wanted to develop a strong challenger and didn't really care what the public thought.

"I think the structure has been stop-start, which has made it hard for the event to work as an attraction.

"Having that big break over Christmas wasn't good and having so many competitors out before Christmas wasn't good either.

"However, I think it will build from now on."

But Thomas doesn't believe this means New Zealanders are taking the cup for granted. "Not this time. I think they are worried that it is going to go. That is why we have had so much support.

"We have found a lot more New Zealand companies have wanted to help us in terms of making sure we have all the resources we need to defend it successfully."

And the feeling in Team New Zealand at the moment? "We are in a good head space. It is a happy team here."

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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