The America’s Cup says goodbye to Barcelona… for good. The yachting competition has already announced news that denies the rumors that were circulating: the America’s Cup will not return to Barcelona in its next edition.
It has been announced by Emirates Team New Zealand, the New Zealand team that won this edition and, therefore, the owner of the decision on where the next edition of the championship will be held.
Grant Dalton, CEO of the team and one of the visible faces of the tournament, said yesterday, after meeting with the City Council, that it is difficult to repeat this tournament in Barcelona because the objective of the tournament is “to increase the audience and involvement in different regions, territories and demographics”, and that does not seem to be possible in Barcelona.
These statements coincide with others made by the City Council, which affirms that extending the America’s Cup until 2026 “would not contribute anything”. In addition, the City Council has stated that if the America’s Cup wants to return to Barcelona it should seek private funding, since the city is not willing to repeat the investment made in the competition, estimated, in principle, at 10 million euros by the Consistory to be added to the 30 million contributed by the Generalitat and the Spanish Government and five million contributed by the Diputació de Barcelona.
A controversial competition
The America’s Cup has not been without controversy in Barcelona. The main concern of the neighbors during the sailing tournament has been the overcrowding derived from this great sporting event. In this regard, the mayor of Barcelona Jaume Collboni, in an interview for TV3, said just 5 days ago that the America’s Cup had been a success, noting that it had had a much smaller impact in terms of overcrowding of the city and that, for its part, had met its three main objectives for the city: reconnect Barcelona with the sea, accelerate the transformation of the coastline and have a major international event.
On the other hand, the city council did acknowledge that the competition had not had the expected impact on waterfront commerce, but, contradictorily, celebrated it by claiming that this had not led to the overcrowding the event was expected to provoke.