The largest sailing event ever

From the beginning of April until early July, Valencia will host the biggest yacht racing event ever staged. Bar none. The 32nd America’s Cup is set to launch yachting into a new dimension within the context of international sport where it is likely to end up falling in line behind only the very largest of sports events such as Formula 1 or the Olympics and in the same ball park - if the astronomic numbers are to be believed – as World Cup football. Let me repeat this: the 32nd America’s Cup is set to be as big in terms of its economic impact as the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany - this is simply staggering news. Don’t believe me? Let’s blind you with some figures. The 2000 and 2003 America’s Cup were held in far away Auckland where these two events respectively added a paltry NZ$ 425 million (229 million Euros) and NZ$ 529 million (285 million Euros) to the New Zealand economy. Recently Michel Bonnefous, CEO of America’s Cup Management (ACM), estimated that the direct return for Valencia would be between 2 and 3 BILLION Euros, ie 10x what New Zealand as a whole made. However a report just published by the Spanish government looking at the impact of staging the 32nd America’s Cup on their economy on a wider scale indicates the situation to be better still. This states that over eight years the event will generate 6 Billion Euros for Spain along with 61,300 jobs, while the Valencia region will benefit by 3.67 Billion Euros. This is on an outlay of just under 2 Billion Euros including the building of the massive Port America’s Cup. To put this in perspective the equivalent figures for the Sydney Olympics was Aus $ 6.3 billion (3.8 billion Euros),