Sunday, November 23, 2008

The America's Cup

*Disclaimer* Obviously at this time there is so much legal crap surrounding that AC that any discussion of its merits should involve these topics, yet, mine will not.

The AC is the prized glory of all sailors. In fact, in the movie "Wind" (the best attempt at a popular movie about racing that I know of) the plot is based on the lure of this trophy. But it seems that since the 80's, the cup has lost popular attention in the US. But why? Well that's a pretty easy question. There is no American team. While BMW Oracle claims to be an American team, it is sponsored by BMW (not American) and has a non-American crew. Now, I'm not anti-everyone else as some "patriots" are, but I believe that in some respects, you have to remain strict. BMW Oracle is a fine campaign, but it is never going to rally the American people. The problem is, they don't care. As long as they can keep the sponsors happy, any extra support is icing on the cake.

Many people have suggested that the AC return to a competition between nations. But there is a problem to this, and also the reason they changed the rule. Not every country is equal. Even with billions of dollars, it would be difficult for Egypt to put together a citizen team and compete with the Kiwis. It's just a fact. But with billions of dollars and no citizenship rule, they can buy out all the Kiwis and win! You see this way, more money and sponsors can enter the scene.

The way I see it is, if you can increase the popularity of the AC to the public, you don't have to worry about having huge sponsors because they will come flocking! Sponsors originate from people seeing their advertisements. So instead of trying to sign more sponsors, why not invest that labor into finding more ways to get more viewers! Change the rules if you have to so that the AC returns to being popular.

It's so cool to see the spinnakers in the Olympics because they are the flags of their countries. Imagine seeing that on an AC boat. Instead of the US team flying a big BMW kite, it would but a beautiful USA flag.

There's a reason that in the NFL, they don't wear advertisements on their jerseys, they don't have to. They have so many fans already that they don't have to worry so much about the sponsors wanting more advertising space. They have found more subtle ways to introduce the advertising. Naming the stadiums, having tons of commercials, sponsoring the "first down line", etc. But the sport itself isn't suffocated with corporate advertising as sailing is.

But there are some sports that are also saturated with marketing. Look at European football (soccer). There jerseys have ads on them. Why can't sailboats? Because sailboats are meant to be named beautiful names. Not corporation names. These giant syndicates and race heads need to find more subtle ways to introduce the sponsors into the AC.

You don't hear about "Courageous" anymore or the other incredible boats. It has all been bought out.

So is the AC lost forever to the US market? Of course not. But more Americans need to be involved in the process and they can't be afraid to market and advertise their teams to the American public. They need to have brave, interesting skippers like Dennis Conner again who would die for the cup, not die for more money.

The heart of the AC used to be passion for sailing, but as of late it seems to be simply a passion for money.

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