The 38th America’s Cup was never coming back to Auckland. Never. And yet, here we are, drowning in a sea of political spin, PR puff pieces, and hand-wringing from every local body politician to the Prime Minister, all of them waxing lyrical about how they “tried their best” to keep it here.
We called this weeks ago on the podcast. The moment Auckland City Council’s events team started their "talks" with Team New Zealand, it was clear as day that it was all for show. A pantomime. A media smokescreen to make it look like we were in the running. The truth? We never had a hope in hell. And forget about hosting it anytime soon, either. The America’s Cup has well and truly outgrown us.
Why? One reason and one reason only: money.
Grant Dalton, Team New Zealand’s head honcho, made it crystal clear from the outset. If Auckland was going to host again, the funding had to come from three sources – local government, central government, and private enterprise. The moment you bring politicians into the mix, especially in a cash-strapped country with a general election in 12 months, it’s game over.
Hosting an America’s Cup isn’t cheap. We’re talking hundreds of millions. Barcelona’s most recent report suggested an economic boost of almost $2 billion NZD from the event. Sounds like a great investment, right? Spend a hundred million, make a billion. Simple. Except, who exactly is crunching these numbers?
Every time a country bids for an event like this, the “economic impact” numbers are fed to the media with all the enthusiasm of a salesman on commission. The reports are often funded by the very people pushing to host the event. A conflict of interest? Hell yes. Show me an independent, peer-reviewed study that says an America’s Cup isn’t a goldmine, and then we’ll talk.
Yes, Auckland has benefited infrastructure-wise. The Viaduct? Wynyard Quarter? All thanks to the Cup. But how much of that benefit extends beyond Auckland? Did hosting the event really do anything for, say, Invercargill?
That’s like asking how the SailGP in Lyttelton Harbour helped out Hamilton’s economy. It didn’t.
Grant Dalton is a pragmatist. A dealmaker. He follows the money, and frankly, why wouldn’t he? The America’s Cup isn’t a charity event. It’s an elite, big-money spectacle for billionaires and their space-age yachts. Auckland was never going to outbid the Saudis or a European super-rich city desperate for a tourism boost.
Politically, it was also a dead duck. Could you really see this government, polling lower than a limbo dancer, committing hundreds of millions to a yachting regatta while Kiwis struggle with housing, healthcare, and infrastructure failures? It was never going to happen. No government – Labour, National, or anyone else – was going to take that risk.
Saudi Arabia. Or somewhere superyacht-friendly in Europe. That’s my bet. The money is there, and the ambition is there. The same can’t be said for New Zealand right now.
New Zealand has had its time in the America’s Cup sun. It’s been brilliant. But let’s not delude ourselves – we were never in this race. And all this media posturing? Nothing but political point-scoring. “Oh, we tried our best, we did everything we could!”
Bollocks.
The minute money became the deciding factor, the conversation was over.
