Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton, former Catalan President Pere Aragonès and former Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau during the America’s Cup presentation in March 2022.Quique Garcia (EFE)
In October 2017, the Catalan business class was on the couch. It clashed with Ada Colau in the mayor’s office and was about to be buried by the wave of independence. It was the first time in a long time that the Catalan bourgeoisie was unable to set the agenda. While some families aligned themselves with the processothers tried to prevent it and even met with the then president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, to ask him sanity on the eve of the unilateral declaration. Without projects, self-conscious about the comparison with the capital, the Catalan elite was demotivated. It is not surprising then that, in November 2021, when the Puigs began to talk discreetly about the America’s Cup, there was an agreement in record time: a success was needed, and the cup had to go to Barcelona. Meetings against the clock, unforeseen alliances and the personal commitment of the wealthiest families in Catalonia made it possible.
It did not matter then that the only memory of the America’s Cup in Spain was the waste of the two editions in Valencia. Nor that it was late in the race to present the candidacy, or that the support of the administrations and the adhesion of the citizens were still lacking. The obsession of the business community was to “put Barcelona back on the map,” as all those involved explain. “The process and the fact that in recent years there have been a series of sales of family businesses to multinationals or IPOs had left businessmen very confused, but with things like this the business community always signs up,” says Luis Conde, president of the Boat Show and founder of the headhunting company Seeliger & Conde, and someone who knows how to analyse the mood of the elites: every year he organises a civet at his farmhouse, a meal attended by businessmen and politicians of all kinds and affiliations. The businessman recalls that Barcelona had already tried to take over this competition in the 2000s, but the then mayor Joan Clos refused because of the significant investment that Valencia later made. “And now we had the most anti-nautical mayor of all, but they convinced her,” he says.
It all started with the Puigs, with Marian and Daniel, the first and last of the four brothers of the Puig Guasch branch — to which Marc Puig, president and CEO of the perfume and fashion company, belongs. Daniel received a call from Guillermo Altadill, a sailor who knew Grant Dalton, the leader of the New Zealand team. He was looking, through the consulting firm Origin, for a new location in a time zone suitable for attracting an audience from the United States and Asia. “The city was in very low spirits, due to the political and economic situation and due to Covid. The feeling was of low self-esteem. My wife, who is Swedish and of Lutheran culture, told me ‘either you do something or you stop complaining’. This was a trigger for getting into the project,” recalls Daniel Puig. The other, he explains, was to emulate the role played by his father, Mariano Puig, who put up the money for the 1992 Olympic bid. After consulting with family and over dinner at home with Altadill and Steward Hosford of Origin, the Puigs realise they need a structure to roll out the project quickly: it’s early November and the deadline to mount the bid is March 30.
Authorities and organizers of the America’s Cup present the Barcelona edition, in March 2022.Quique Garcia (EFE)
Marian Puig had been the third president of Barcelona Global, a lobby The Catalan capital is a business association with great influence and with which the main companies of the Catalan capital are associated. “The partners are very important, and one like the Puig family even more so. It seemed crazy, because we had memories of Valencia, but we analysed Origin and saw that it was a serious matter,” explains Mateu Hernández, at that time general manager of Barcelona Global under the presidency of Aurora Catà. We had to work in three directions: gain the support of the administrations, obtain private sponsorship and negotiate the candidacy with Dalton.
The interlocutors
At the Generalitat, the first interlocutor was Sergi Sabrià, then director of the office of President Pere Aragonès, who delegated the negotiations to Albert Castellanos, Secretary of Business and Competitiveness. “It would allow us to recover our international presence and prestige. It was a good bet,” says Castellanos. At the City Council, the key to entry was Albert Dalmau, current Minister of the Presidency of the Generalitat, who had worked at Barcelona Global with Hernández and who at that time was manager of Economy at Barcelona City Council and right-hand man of Jaume Collboni, then first deputy mayor. The definitive push came when the president of the Port of Barcelona, Damià Calvet, and its general director, José Alberto Carbonell, confirmed that the project was suitable for the port. All these contacts began to work, and it was piloted by the president of Barcelona Global through the investment attraction agency Barcelona & Partners. There was even a WhatsApp group: “the Albertos”, for all those who were called that.
Then, what Dalmau remembers as “a dinner of conspiracy” took place at the headquarters of Barcelona Global, attended by businessmen Gonzalo Rodés, Daniel Puig, Emili Cuatrecasas, Aurora Catà, Pau Guardans and Pau Relat, as well as Dalmau and Collboni. “They asked Collboni to help them. He said that if they wanted this to happen, they all had to get involved,” explains Dalmau. Barcelona did not have all the cards in its favour. The natural candidate, due to its greater financial endowment, was Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). Cork (Ireland) and Malaga were also competing, which meant that the State could not position itself between two Spanish candidates. Through calls from Madrid, Dalmau promoted, together with the lawyer Ignacio Toda, the negotiation so that Barcelona would contribute the same amount as Malaga, incorporating the Barcelona Provincial Council and the Barcelona Tourism Consortium.
Financing
Bringing the America’s Cup to Barcelona cost 80 million euros, but the authorities were only willing to put up 45 and, although they promised to speed up planned investments in the port area, they refused to make new investments. There were already some sponsorships, but 25 million were missing, and in a fortnight the families and Barcelona Global, among whom were the Puigs, the Rodés, the Carullas, the Guardans and the Coellos, managed to get 25 businessmen to put up a million each as personal guarantees. “We went out to sell what was unsaleable: in the worst case you lose a million, in the best case, you gain nothing. We played the emotional argument: if you think that Barcelona is not where it should be, we give you a chance to change it. Almost everyone joined in,” explains Daniel Puig, who is president of the Barcelona Capital Náutica Foundation. In the end the guarantee, which did not have to be executed, was put up by 42 people. “The reality that the business world was experiencing was one of depression and anger. This alliance of private companies generated a lot of enthusiasm,” explains Hernández.
Puig President Marc Puig with the organisers of the women’s America’s Cup competition.David Zorrakino / Europa Press (Europa Press)
The most difficult piece was missing: the mayor. Through the deputy mayor Jordi Martí, the project came to Colau as something that was very difficult to say no to. “They liked the fact that there were women’s and youth competitions, and that it could be seen from the beach,” explains Catà, who is now vice president of the organization of this edition of the cup. She explains that the last straw was to go where it was decided, to London, together with Ángel García, a partner of Barcelona Global. “Everyone was trying to push, we made the last calls to the Government. The New Zealanders had a private plane in case there was no agreement, to go to Malaga. In the end Dalton told us: the cup is yours,” she says. “Barcelona’s candidacy was unbeatable because it gave a lot to the cup, in terms of visibility. Once we had that, the work began to integrate it into the city and show that it is something for the citizens,” adds Dalmau.
Image of one of the meetings of businessmen and institutions for the preparation of the Copa del América, provided by Barcelona Global.
This is precisely what is in doubt now. Sources from the comuns affirm that what was agreed has not been respected. “The city is giving itself away to the cup,” they say. Colau herself said on Monday on TV3 that it makes her “angry” to see what the competition that she signed up for has become. But Colau is already out of the City Council and the businessmen, whether there is an audience or not, have already had their first success.
Criticism for transparency
Bernard Coll
The Copa del América organisation has claimed this Monday to be “transparent” in the figures and estimates it has used to forecast the audience and the economic impact of the competition, following criticism from the association No a la Copa América, which accuses the event of exaggerating its forecasts following a publication by La Directa. According to this publication, the Copa del América multiplied the expected audience and visitor figures to obtain recognition as an Event of Exceptional Public Interest, which allows it to enjoy tax flexibility. No a la Copa América has described the current sporting competition as a “fraud”.
In response to EL PAÍS, America’s Cup Event (ACE), the company that organises the world’s most important sailing competition, “the estimate of visitors to Barcelona was based on visitors associated with the America’s Cup in Valencia, which was the best comparison for forecasting”, although it did not specify the source of these figures. ACE assured that the Barcelona competition aspired to attract 2.5 million people. “The television and radio broadcast audience figures have been clearly communicated (total audience and specific audience) in accordance with the industry standards of the most reputable audience measurement company in the world, Nielsen”. On the competition’s website, an audience of 941 million viewers is attributed for the 2021 edition.
The No to the Copa América platform will hold a demonstration on October 13, during the final match to win the Hundred Guineas Cup.
