Team New Zealand’s bold moves reshape America’s Cup and broaden competition – Paul Lewis

THE FACTS

• Emirates Team New Zealand have implemented changes to make the America’s Cup more competitive.
• The new rules include relaxed nationality requirements and a cost cap of €75 million.
• The changes aim to ensure continuity and growth, with events every two years and shared decision-making.

What do you do if you are so good at your sport, so in command of an event, and so able to tilt the deck in your favour that no one will compete with you? The answer is what underlines Emirates Team New Zealand’s historic moves to level the playing field in the defender-dominated, billionaire-backed, legal-eagle-afflicted regatta known as the America’s Cup.

Simply put, Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) were becoming victims of their own success, a defender so ahead of the challenging pack that the challengers spat the dummy when the draft protocol arrived, effectively saying there was no point turning up if the result was already decided within the protocol’s pages.

Yachting traditionalists are already claiming this to be the end of the America’s Cup. They see ETNZ boss Grant Dalton’s “future-proofing” as akin to burying the cup’s rich history at sea; a commercial manoeuvre turning a global signature event into what traditionalists call “just another regatta”.

The intriguing bit is what ETNZ have given up – yes, former skipper and whizz kid Peter Burling can sail for Luna Rossa now, thanks to the relaxed nationality rules for sailors. Yes, they have relinquished a great deal of control – the defender’s prerogative – over much of the cup. For example, the next venue will be decided by the landmark partnership comprising all challenging teams (the AC Partnership or ACP).

Team NZ have also, if you think about it, given up home advantage – and the agreement to use the hulls from AC37 (37th running of the cup) on the AC75 yachts in Naples means the design element is a little diluted, too.

But have they given up that much, really? Burling had already gone and regardless, changed loyalties are part and parcel of professional sport. Meanwhile, the major part of the technology/design/arms race that is the America’s Cup survives in elements like foils, foil arms, sails and rudders – where ETNZ had a clear lead at the end of the 37th cup. ETNZ trust Nathan Outteridge’s ability – and they/the defender retain control, as per America’s Cup tradition, over the class rule, ie the specifications for the yachts and the racing.

The cost cap of €75m ($147 million) offers the potential for more entries down the track; Dalton made me laugh when he told Newstalk ZB he’d love to have $147m to spend, as ETNZ have never spent that much previously. It works, however, for teams previously dependent on billionaires, whose caprices can be difficult and goals a bit different – just ask Britain’s Sir Ben Ainslie and Ineos’s Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Event and team sponsors now have certainty: an event every two years. They can plan and market around that. That means each team has the prospect of continuity of employment – no more going into a black hole while lawyers argue the toss over some America’s Cup loophole.

Even if ETNZ lose the cup, the new conditions mean it is theoretically easier to raise funds and turn up for the next one in two years instead of – as nearly happened a few years ago – permanently closing the doors. Team NZ are already 30 years old; this should lengthen their lifespan.

A chief executive of the ACP will be appointed: he or she will report to the ACP board, composed of one representative of each team, with equal votes. Some decisions can be made by majority; others will need unanimous consent. That means we can expect the next regatta (AC39) to take place in 2029 at a site to be determined by the ACP board, not ETNZ. It means Auckland/New Zealand could be back in play at some stage in the future – though it won’t be Team NZ’s decision alone and the money would have to be right if the challengers are all from faraway Europe or the US, with all the travel and expense that brings.

Switzerland’s Alinghi was behind the push for relaxed nationality rules (there aren’t many world-class AC sailors in Switzerland), though the Italians benefited from the Burling business. Alinghi likely wanted more than two non-nationals. The Brits have clearly got what they wanted cost-wise; Ainslie’s Athena Racing team will likely announce some sponsorship deals soon. The French will be back but it is not yet known whether American Magic and Alinghi will participate. Significantly, the New York Yacht Club – the guardians of the cup’s historical Deed of Gift – supported ETNZ’s concept.

Yes, the new arrangement has some quirks – we will all have to grin and bear it as, God help us, “influencers” travel on the racing yachts as part of the effort to grow the game, attracting new audiences and new investment. Adding a mandatory female sailor to each team is part of that, too – it makes sense to include half the planet’s population.

Some think that in time, this move could open the way for ownership investment, a little like how Formula One has evolved. Maybe, maybe not – you’d hope the ACP board would be mindful of the traditions of the cup as well as the need to ensure its survival in a very different world from 174 years ago.

In the end, while there are some suspicions about the financial/commercial motivations behind this move, it had to come. The alternative was the risk the cup could become becalmed, mired like a fat old scow in an oil spillage. This is worth a go.

Paul Lewis writes about rugby, cricket, league, football, yachting, golf, the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games.