Sardinia renounces 37th America’s Cup

A number of regattas due to be held in Cagliari, Sardinia’s capital city, have been cancelled due to a dispute over the 37th America’s Cup which begins in September and runs through to the same month in 2024. The plan had been for Cagliari to be the location of the preliminary races this September, but this was recently assigned to Vilanova in Spain instead.

The Sardinian tourism authorities have pulled the plug on the regattas in Cagliari, despite the promise of €6.1m in financing in the latest budget.

The regional councillor for tourism, Gianni Chessa, confirmed to Italian news agency AGI that he had sent a letter to Albert Vilumara, commercial director of the America’s Cup Event Barcelona (ACE), the company organising the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona in 2024, and to Grant Dalton, CEO of Team New Zealand.

In the letter Chessa complains of a series of defaults, including the lack of an interlocutor on the part of ACE. Meanwhile, it seems that ACE has accused the Sardinia region of disorganisation. The feeling is that on the Sardinian side there was naivety, on the part of ACE, little trust in the local organisers and, probably, in the regional institutions.

The decision was taken, says Chessa, because the organisers changed the verbal agreements made in August 2022 in the offices of the regional tourism councillor, where they announced that they wanted to hold the first stage of AC40 class racing in Sardinia. The region, however, never received the requested documentation necessary to formalise the agreement, and then discovered that ACE had chosen to organise the first events in Vilanova, near Barcelona.

Corrado Fara, president of Sardinia’s Zone III, said: “It would have been a very important event for sailing in Sardinia and in Italy. I can only acknowledge, with regret, that the event cannot be held. We understand the reasons for America’s Cup Events for having preferred a location in Spain, such as IVF Zone III, and we hope that Cagliari will have the opportunity to reorganise an event approaching the America’s Cup in the future.”

”They had guaranteed us,” Chessa told ANSA (the Italian news website), “that Cagliari would be the first stage in Europe. The organisers, relying on a Sardinian law firm, had ensured it in front of witnesses. We have started the bureaucratic process necessary to prepare all the documents, always guaranteeing the financial coverage required.

“When we indirectly learned of Vilanova’s choice, we asked the America’s Cup for explanations. Because Sardinia’s dignity cannot be touched: we had established that the stage in Cagliari would be the first. Without any doubt.

“At this point, either the America’s Cup assigns Cagliari the first stage, that of September, or that sum will be destined for other initiatives for Sardinia. The agreements were clear, our island is not a land of conquest.”

 Source: IBI News

Photo: America's Cup