Luke Kirkness: Why the Bay of Plenty should host the America's Cup

Hometown hero Peter Burling with the Ald Mug. Photo / Photosport

Opinion:

The prospect of New Zealand hosting the next America's Cup title defence is slowly sailing away.

Excuse the pun, I could knot help myself. Okay, I swear I've got it out of the system now.

Team New Zealand rejected the Government's $99 million bid to host the next cup on our shores on Wednesday.

However, Team NZ boss Grant Dalton says the rejection doesn't necessarily mean the 2024 event will be held offshore.

The Bay of Plenty needs to stick up its hand to host the event.

It'd be logical to host America's Cup here, maybe not on the shores of Lake Rotorua but off the coast of Mt Maunganui would be a dream.

The Mount would be a spectacular place to create an America's Cup Village. Photo / Alan Gibson

Before the event in Auckland, a bunch of head honchos from Team NZ visited Tauranga in 2017 to weigh up whether they should move the event here.

Unfortunately, they did not but the opportunity presents itself again.

It's thought if the cup is taken offshore, the Irish city of Cork would be the frontrunner. I've got nothing against the Irish but we can't let that happen.

There would be plenty of upsides to the region if the event was held in Tauranga.

Granted, we would need to fix up a few things here and there but America's Cup would give us the kick up the backside we need.

I figure we'd want to improve the waterfront area especially.

Auckland has its viaduct and created an America's Cup Village for the event. It was great but the pandemic meant international spectators couldn't attend.

An entertainment area close to the water would not only be a big win for the race but for future events held in the city too.

We'd also need a few more hotels and motels throughout the city. More beds mean more people. Again, Tauranga would win when future events were held.

Both of these development areas at the very least would create a lot of jobs locally.

The footage on television would also do wonders for our tourism, I suspect, when people take in the best this region has to offer.

And last but not least, Team NZ skipper Peter Burling is a Tauranga local and that's sure to give him the edge on his competition. It didn't work for Dean Barker I guess.

I don't care much for sailing until America's Cup rolls around but when it's on, I can't get enough of it and it seems much of the country is the same.

I think it's a source of national pride, a small nation battling it out against the richest people in the world and beating them, proving talent beats money — though, money helps.

We should throw the gorse out of our pockets and dig deep, present a united front and encourage the Government and Team NZ to give us a go.