Winston Aldworth: Team NZ win another race for public funding

If the sporting world handed out an annual trophy to the organisation that proved itself most adept at tapping into public funding, that cup would have long been bolted down in the headquarters of Team New Zealand.

Like all their furniture, it would soon be getting packed up and shipped to Barcelona.

Public reaction to this morning's announcement that Team New Zealand intend to set sail for Spain was strong and understandable.

It's unclear how much of the public purse – from central government and local government – has been poured into supporting Team New Zealand and developing and backing the efforts needed to host the America's Cup in recent decades. In 2020, the Government committed to a $136.5m package for Team New Zealand to host the 36th America's Cup. Auckland Council also committed $113.

After last year's pandemic-crimped series win by the hosts, council and Government joined together to offer a $99 million package to keep the event in Auckland. It might sound like a lot of money to you and me, but what would we know? We're just ratepayers and taxpayers, the suckers left carrying the tab.

Regardless, it wasn't enough for Grant Dalton's crew who maintain that the revenue that comes with a Barcelona-based race will give them a better chance to defend the Cup.

As Dalton told Mike Hosking this morning: "The point is if you lose onshore it will never come home. And here's a chance that we'll be funded well enough to take a realistic chance of defending it so we can bring it home."

By this logic, they had to burn the America's Cup village to save the America's Cup village.

But don't blame Dalton. Officials and politicians in Wellington and Auckland should have recognised the mercenary nature of big-league sailing and they should have tied any financial support to cast-iron guarantees that future events would be raced on the Waitemata.

There's a Catalan saying: "Els peixos grossos sempre es menjaran els minuts."

Roughly translated: "The big fish always eat the small ones." Today, Barcelona ate Auckland.

That's no surprise – after all, the Catalan capital is a global centre of cool and a wonderful place to be. It features wide-open boulevards, fabulous museums and galleries and an efficient public transport system – all things that Auckland is a little low on.

At least now we'll have a little extra cash to invest in those things.