KEY POINTS:
The legal dispute raging between between America's Cup holders Switzerland's Team Alinghi, and American challenger BMW Oracle is threatening to scuttle Team New Zealand, Britain's The Times reported.
"Grant Dalton, the Emirates Team New Zealand managing director, has allegedly told his team that if the dispute is not resolved by the end of the year and the final race is not held in 2009, his team will close," the Times said.
Team New Zealand have denied the reports.
Nobody is clear when the 33rd America's Cup will take place.
"The original date of 2009 looks dead in the water, but with court-case judgments pending and appeals likely, the future of the challengers is at stake," The Times said. .
Larry Ellison, the software mogul and owner of BMW Oracle, has taken Ernesto Bertarelli, the biotech billionaire and owner of Alinghi, to court.
Any chance of an out-of-court settlement appeared to end at the weekend, when Alinghi rejected a joint proposal from three challengers to modify the demands of Oracle enough to mollify Alinghi.
Oracle's contention is that Alinghi's choice of Desafio Espanol, the Spanish syndicate, as official challengers, which allowed them to negotiate the disputed format of the next competition, is illegal.
The seven challengers - Desafio, Team NZ, Britain's Origin team, Team Shosholoza of South Africa, United internet Team of Germany, Mascalzone Latino, of Italy, and Ayre, the second Spanish team, are now hoping for a judgment from Justice Herman Cahn of the New York state court (which has jurisdiction over the America's Cup.
Justice Cahn heard the case on October 22.
"It is looking like the only person who can break this logjam is Justice Cahn," said Marcus Hutchinson, the Origin head of communications.
- NZPA
