Long Beach and the America's Cup
Cities are putting their best foot forward to bring the excitement of the America's Cup to their town. Here is the presentation from Sail Long Beach:
With its strong prevailing winds and deep waterfront access, Long Beach, CA is a world-class sailing venue. Long Beach is well suited to conduct a multi-challenger event in conditions similar to those found on San Francisco Bay. The city is also home to the Congressional Cup, Transpac send off and training grounds for multiple America's Cup teams including BMW/Oracle Racing.
Long Beach is no stranger to hosting premier sporting events. The city has played host to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Sailing Venue, 2004 US Olympic Swim Trials, 2007 Amgen Tour of California, the annual Long Beach Grand Prix, and most recently, the Red Bull’s New Year “No Limits” on ESPN with Travis Pastrana. In fact, Red Bull was so pleased with the City’s venue and cohesive community partnership that they have chosen to return to Long Beach for this year's Flugtag; which they estimate will draw a crowd of 100,000 to Rainbow Harbor.
Our thesis is the actual America’s Cup will be raced in San Francisco in 2014. A series of Acts will be raced around the world in each Challenger’s home port. The City of Long Beach offers support for the America’s Cup competitors in a number of ways including; facility support for training and preliminary competitions. One scenario might include a multi-Challenger series hosted in Long Beach which determines the quarter-finalists. The final four would finish on a Sunday in mid- August. The following Monday they would load onto trucks for a mini tour of California. The boats would be rigged and ready to sail their first semi-final the following Saturday.
The spirit of the Long Beach‘s offer is one of cooperation and support for the Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC). San Francisco may prove problematic for the entire event. However, we believe it is entirely appropriate that San Francisco and the GGYC host the 34th America’s Cup. Ida Lewis YC in Newport offered a themselves as the NYYC’s auxiliary station in Newport, RI for decades. We see Long Beach in a similar role.
The City of Long Beach, CA stands at the ready to support the event.
Note: A revised video was posted May 23, 2010 to incorporate some of the feedback received.
posted by Blogger @ 8:09 AM
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4 Comments:
Somebody forget the Congressional Cup, Ficker Cup?
Born in Long Beach- Raised in Long Beach- raced about a bazillon days in Long Beach-probably grew up with someone from the CVB who made this but cannot for the life of me understand why they wouldnt mention the only Grade 1 Match Race in US in this video. The only ones who have to be impressed is Larry/Russell and Club Nautico di Roma. Come on folks!
The comments regarding the Con Cup has prompted the video to be revised to include footage of this event.
From what I understand, the focus of the video was to showcase the commercial sporting events that are hosted in Long Beach, and not necessarily to showcase the sailing events.
Probably the easiest part of the sell about Long Beach is the sailing conditions.
Because the America's Cup event and the World Sailing Team Association rely heavily on commercial support, demonstrating that Long Beach has already been chosen as a host city for events with similar requirements is an important piece of the puzzle.
It would be really great if this would happen. I hear that the new boats will have more camera on them to improve the media coverage.
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