Goodbye to the Sailing America Cup…at least in Barcelona. Both the winning New Zealand team, captained by Grant Daltonlike the city council of the Catalan capital, have ruled out hosting the regatta again in its next edition in 2026.
It was precisely the New Zealand winner who yesterday ruled out his continuity in Barcelona. “It would be difficult to expand the number of teams depending on the infrastructure space available in Barcelona,” he said in a statement.
“In addition, following initial conversations with the teams, there is a collective desire to see continued commercial growth of the Copa Américain line with what is observed in other leading world sports,” the text adds.
The statement It does not clarify which venue or venues could host the next regattaonly mentions that you have an “open mind” to choose the best location.
About the audience datareaffirmed that they coincide with the figures projected before the fight for the Hundred Guineas Jar began: “We are on track to achieve our growth objectives of a 50% increase in the total broadcast and media audience.”
Specifically, he detailed that the competition attracted 2.56 million attendees between August 22 and October 19, during the 59 days that the regatta lasted.
Town hall version
For his part, the Deputy Mayor of Economy, Finance and Tourism of Barcelona, Jordi Vallsshared this Wednesday the refusal of the council to maintain the event. The economic brain of the city council has spoken of a “friendly disconnection” agreed with the organizers of the Copa América, America’s Cup Event (ACE).
“We had a conversation with the representative of the America’s Cup yesterday, and we told him what our position is,” he said in an interview on RAC1.
Valls explained that this edition was proposed by the Fundació Capital Nàutica Barcelona and the city council as “a unique and singular event 2020-2024”. In this sense, he clarified that in no case was the city conceived as a stable place for the competition.
About the planned auditsValls has assured that “any event has economic reports”, whose information will be provided in a transparent manner. He has also announced that ACE will share data on the figures of broadcast.
According to him, Barcelona has been able to reconnect the city with the sea, reform the urban coastline and promote the blue economy, in addition to demonstrating that it is a city with the capacity to organize major world events.
Landing in Valencia?
The ruling out of Barcelona once again places in all the pools Valencia as one of the great candidates to host the sailing competition. Both the Generalitat Valenciana and the Valencia City Council have actively and passively shown their interest in recovering this event.
Both the Valencian president, Carlos Mazónlike Mayor María José Catalá, both from the PP, blamed their predecessors for not bidding for the venue of the competition with Barcelona for this year’s edition.
A claim that had been made by the local business sector, which considers that the Copa América was a turning point for tourism and put Valencia on the international map.
The city of Turia has already hosted two editions. The first took place in 2007 after the Swiss Alinghi, a landlocked country, won the trophy. Valencia had to pay a fee of 90 million euros then, in addition to committing investments of nearly 500 million euros to transform the port area closest to the city into the current Marina.
The fact of having suitable facilities is one of the great advantages of the Valencian alternative. Although the debt generated by the entity created by the State, Generalitat and City Council was a source of controversy in the region until finally the central government assumed it and condoned it.
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