Spanish city Valencia puts hand up to host next America’s Cup

Wednesday, 23 October 2024

The America’s Cup could again be hosted in Spain - albeit in another city.

Valencia, which hosted the 2007 America’s Cup, has emerged as a contender and is reportedly willing to outbid Barcelona if required to secure the deal with Team New Zealand.

As reported by El Mundo, the Valencia city council has acknowledged it is negotiating with the America’s Cup champions, and has another 90 days to put together a case.

“I have done, I do and I will do everything necessary for the Copa América to return to its home, which is Valencia. I am not going to give up,' Valencia president Carlos Mazón said.

Valencia has reportedly been pressing their case for months, and the mayor’s chief of staff, Cristóbal Grau, travelled to Barcelona last week during racing to learn about the “main virtues and defects” participating teams found in Barcelona.

In three months, Barcelona will receive the official audit of the just completed event. It is expected to pass with flying marks, including in terms of sponsorship income and audiences.

However, as protests during the event showed, many locals were against it and are dead against it returning.

“They know that, with Valencia in the dispute, the New Zealanders will once again hand over the event to the highest bidder and they are not sure if they want to enter this auction that starts at 80 million Euros (NZ$142 million),” El Mundo reported.

The next America’s Cup is scheduled for 2026, but could be moved to 2027, with an increase in boats a priority. The presence of a Spanish challenger would also arouse interest in the country.

As reported by El Mundo, the city was chosen by New Zealand for this year’s event, but Valencia’s regime at the time showed no interest.

'It is an issue on which we are working calmly and prudently. It is something I already said during the election campaign. It is true that the previous governments, both regional and local, gave up and lost the opportunity to benefit Barcelona,“ mayor María José Catalá said.

“Now Valencia has a serious competitor, which is Barcelona,​​ which has built some facilities and which is clearly a competitor that did not exist,” she lamented.

Catalá told El Mundo the America’s Cup brought more than just a tourism sugar hit to the city.

“It meant that many team members came to live in Valencia and many people have stayed. It is not a one-off tourism but a permanent economic impact over time and, in that sense, when there is an impact that remains and is positive, we have to value it differently,” she explained.

Team New Zealand released a statement, which indicated the event had perhaps outgrown Barcelona, in response to speculation regarding future hosts.

Chief executive Grant Dalton hailed the success of Barcelona, given the growth across multiple fronts, and was eager to “increase audience and engagement across different regions, territories and demographics”.

“As a result of these successes we know we have a number of valuable properties that we wish to continue building. We are keeping an open mind on how best to achieve this with a venue, or different venues, that can super charge the 38th America’s Cup with increased global footprint, more teams and increased overall expansion opportunities.

“It would be difficult to expand the number of teams based on the available infrastructure space in Barcelona.”