The organizers of the America’s Cup announced this Friday, September 17 the postponement of the decision on the location of the next edition, saying they need more time to choose between Auckland or abroad.
Team New Zealand (TNZ) retained the prestigious sailing trophy last March, beating Italian Luna Rossa 7-3 off New Zealand’s largest city.
The location of the next regatta in 2024 was due to be announced on Friday, but the Auckland containment, which is trying to eliminate the highly contagious Delta variant, has forced TNZ to give itself more time.
“The lockdown due to Covid in New Zealand prevents members of the TNZ team from visiting the premises,” Team New Zealand explained.
“It was originally planned to hold essential face-to-face meetings to provide final feedback to the team.”
Despite its name, Team New Zealand is a private organization and has no obligation to organize in New Zealand the defense of its title in the prestigious sailing competition, the next edition of which is scheduled for 2024.
The New Zealand government has made an offer of € 61million to keep the competition in the city, an offer TNZ deemed insufficient, although the union said it had not completely ruled out Auckland as a possibility.
There are three “compelling and professional” overseas offers that take time to be properly investigated, TNZ explained.
The organization did not provide further details, but the New Zealand press put forward the names of Cork in Ireland, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Valencia in Spain. TNZ did not specify a date for the announcement of the host city of the next edition.
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