San Francisco was the obvious leading candidate but Russell Coutts is now considering four other cities: San Diego, Honolulu, Newport and Chicago. The latest rumors say that Chicago is currently the leading candidate. The decision has been pushed out to “summer.” Assuming there is an America’s Cup World Series in 2015 and 2016, Coutts hopes that each team will organize an ACWS event in their own country.
How will the 35th America’s Cup be conducted?
Ah, there’s the rub. The Protocol defines both commercial terms and competition. Russell Coutts leads the negotiations for the defender and Iain Murray represents the challengers, as head of the challenger of record. The biggest sticking point may be the challenger selection process. Formerly called the Louis Vuitton Cup, the process in the past has been for all challengers to compete in the class of boat to be raced in the America’s Cup Match, with racing at the venue of the match. Neither the “Louis Vuitton Acts” that preceded the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup in Valencia nor the America’s Cup World Series that preceded the 2013 edition in San Francisco “counted” for anything in selecting the eventual Challenger (both times ETNZ).
One idea apparently under discussion is to use the America’s Cup World Series in the challenger selection process, with only the top four teams going to the America’s Cup Match venue, racing AC62’s for the first time, in a Challenger Selection Regatta.
This seems very unlikely to be accepted by the challengers.
How would they sell this concept to sponsors? To be competitive they would have to design and build their AC62 without knowing if they would ever race it. If the Defender races in the ACWS, they can influence the selection of who they face in the America’s Cup Match.