• Murray Stott is a trademark agent and global sponsorship broker.
After the victorious fanfare and ticker-tape parades are over most America's Cup teams are left tacking into the financial doldrums to ponder where the money is coming from to mount a credible challenge or defence in four years' time.
Emirates Team New Zealand bringing sport's oldest trophy home to Aotearoa is significant in every way, proving triumphant against a team funded by one of the world's richest men and other teams with funding nudging $200 million apiece, in a race which features twice as much physics as the average F1 race.
Clearly, such an outstanding winning yacht race, up on all foils with Kiwi 8-gauge ingenuity, takes New Zealand's can-do capability factor to a much higher level. "Sir" Grant Dalton and his team deserve every ounce of adulation we can give, gongs notwithstanding, in consideration for services to brand New Zealand.
Taxpayers are committed to an initial $5m dollars in order to keep most of the team intact. It appears the Government is merely saving pre-election face. Five million can't be expected to last very long when we consider the much deserved $2m annual salary packages of some team members.
Major sponsors Emirates adopted the man behind Vodafone, Sir Christopher Gent's, philosophy that the fastest way to the heart of a nation was through sport. Vodafone no longer has multimillion-dollar global F1 sponsorships, such as on-car with Ferrari and McLaren, as they have reached global saturation and now prefer global social media events.
In 2014 I suggested one way of capitalising on public veneration would be to issue a Team New Zealand maritime bond. As a plan B, through KiwiBank, the Government could put in $20m on a dollar-for-dollar basis. The matching dollars could have been achieved by crowd funding and such like, driven by a wave of anticipatory enthusiasm when TNZ held an 8-0 lead during the 34th regatta, reigniting during the 35th when Aotearoa capsized one day, got back on the water the next and went on to finally win the regatta, after 14 long years.
Our America's Cup activities may not have proven the panacea to our local maritime industry. Following the 34th our leading superyacht builder and winner of over 30 design awards, Alloy Yachts, reportedly laid off 130 skilled staff due to a lack of orders.
Last month the local builder of Aotearoa laid off skilled staff in the very month the boat they built won the Auld Mug. It appears the strength of the Kiwi dollar is the salient factor determining where boats are to be built.
Online social impressions are now overtaking media impressions when applying present sponsorship measures for assessing the value proposition of sponsorship platforms. Logo and word recognition digital measuring technology, which wasn't around 14 years ago, are part of the today's assessment tools.
Earl Bamber (left) and Brendon Hartley made global headlines with their win at Le Mans. Photo / Getty Images
The Treasury has previously advised governments that funding of Team New Zealand would produce a poor return. This may now have changed in the light of the latest win. However, the salient barrier to entry remains of there being a period of four years between a sponsor's logo having its days in the sun.
I would therefore suggest, as I have previously, that Team New Zealand be morphed into a new entity offering a wider and more frequent annual reach, by including motorsport.
We have a tradition of podium glory from the days of Hulme, McLaren, Amon, McRae and Bourn. Of equal accomplishment this year was the epic win at Le Mans by Kiwis Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley.
In 2011 Kiwi driver Richie Stanaway took the ATS Formula 3 podium 18 times, 13 as winner, eight more wins than Michael Schumacher in the same series. Industry research reveals Richie Stanaway achieved a larger global TV presence, media and online impressions that year than the All Backs during the Rugby World Cup, and double that of America's Cup.
If we had a broader part-Government-funded Team New Zealand racing programme the sponsorship platforms on offer could include on-shirt, on-car, on-boat, and on-sail, blowing competitors out of the water more frequently.
