{"id":6732,"date":"2013-08-09T09:04:52","date_gmt":"2013-08-09T14:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=6732"},"modified":"2013-08-09T09:04:52","modified_gmt":"2013-08-09T14:04:52","slug":"san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=6732","title":{"rendered":"WHAT HAPPENS TO SAN FRANCISCO?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Therese Poletti<\/a>, MarketWatch<\/p>\n

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\nGetty Images<\/div>\n

Oracle Team USA passes the Golden Gate Bridge while training for September’s America’s Cup regatta on Aug. 7.<\/p><\/div>\n

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) \u2014 In February 2010, a jubilant Larry Ellison and San Francisco Mayor\u00a0Gavin Newsom<\/a>\u00a0stood together at City Hall to celebrate Ellison\u2019s team winning the coveted America\u2019s Cup, the oldest trophy in sailing.<\/p>\n

Ellison, co-founder and chief executive of\u00a0Oracle Corp.<\/a>\u00a0ORCL<\/a>\u00a0+0.24%\u00a0, \u00a0predicted \u2014 if he and his team were to pick San Francisco as host for the next America\u2019s Cup \u2014\u00a0that the races would bring over $1 billion in revenue to the city<\/a>, which was then still hurting from the Great Recession, about three times the economic windfall of the Super Bowl, which is coming to the Bay Area in 2016.<\/p>\n

The current regatta, with three teams racing in the\u00a0Louis Vuitton Cup<\/a>, began in July with round robins, and continues with semifinals now until Aug. 30. The winner goes to the finals, which start Sept. 7, against the defending champion, Team Oracle USA. The final races could run until Sept. 21, if necessary. With so many months of sailing, the city would benefit from the visiting teams and spectators, with an estimated 2 million visitors spending money here on lodging, food, and sites.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>In addition, the beauty of San Francisco Bay and its late afternoon high winds would lend itself to picture-perfect, made-for-TV races. The races of the huge colorful catamarans are taking place far closer to shore, as opposed to the America\u2019s Cups of the past that typically take place in the ocean, far from most spectators.<\/p>\n

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\nGetty ImagesEnlarge Image<\/a><\/div>\n

Italy’s Luna Rossa Challenge (L) and Sweden’s Artemis Racing (R) face off at the start of a semifinals match on Aug. 7.<\/p><\/div>\n

But so far, the America\u2019s Cup is shaping up to be less of an economic boon than predicted. What\u2019s more, the cup has been a sporting disappointment, an event fraught with fighting, lawsuits, accidents and\u00a0the tragic death\u00a0<\/a>of a well-regarded British sailor, Andrew \u201dBart\u201d Simpson in May, who was pinned under the Artemis Racing team\u2019s capsized catamaran, during practice races.<\/p>\n

From the beginning, the trials set the tone.On July 7 Emirates Team New Zealand sailed the course alone<\/a>, and Italy\u2019s Luna Rossa sat out in protest, while an international jury was deciding whether to enforce new safety rules imposed by the regatta director after the tragedy.<\/p>\n

Leading up to the finals in September, the semifinals have begun this month and\u00a0plenty of tickets are still available\u00a0<\/a>to watch from the various spectator venues, at different price ranges, from $35 up to tens of thousands for a yacht berth. Local media has had a field day, where the alternative paper, SFWeekly, has called it a \u201cfiasco\u201d and in February, city supervisor\u00a0John Avalos told the paper<\/a>\u00a0that the city\u2019s Board of Supervisors \u201cwere f-ing played,\u201d by the America\u2019s Cup organizing committee.<\/p>\n

Billionaire\u2019s bust?<\/h3>\n

What went wrong? Is this America\u2019s Cup an example of too much money and too much technology? The races feature the fastest boats yet, with 72-foot-long hulls, and masts \u2014 some made of expensive carbon fiber \u2014 about 131 feet high, with the average price tag to build them about $100 million a boat.<\/p>\n

These massive catamarans are also tech-laden<\/a>, and at least in Oracle Team USA\u2019s case, powered with specially designed software, a mesh network of sensors, on-board computers, GPS, and a WiFi network.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/a><\/div>\n

Will fans accept Beyonce’s new ‘do?<\/h3>\n

Beyonce’s new short hairdo that she posted on Instagram set the online world on fire. Her new look might prevent some hair-related accidents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

One of the biggest issues most frequently cited in the ho-hum races so far, is the fact that there are only four teams, or syndicates.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, you would have expected more than 10,\u201d said Sean Randolph, president and CEO of BayArea Council Economic Institute, which co-authored one of the big economic impact studies of the America\u2019s Cup. \u201cTen to 12 would have been more of a normal size. You have fewer boats, and they are spending less.\u201d<\/p>\n

The four teams are all well-heeled and spent years getting sponsorship or are funded by billionaires like the defender Ellison. For example, Sweden\u2019s Artemis Racing is chaired by Torbj\u00f6rn T\u00f6rnqvist, co-founder of the trading firm Gunvor Group.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cTiming was one factor,\u201d Randolf said, adding that the economic recession came when many teams would have been starting to make plans to enter. \u201cThe other is that these are extremely expensive boats to build and operate, compared to the traditional model haul boats. The tech is exotic, they are fantastic, but they are very expensive to build, operate and maintain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Current estimates by the BayArea Council now predict that the America\u2019s Cup teams, visiting tourists, spectators and other factors will bring about $900 million in revenue versus $1.4 billion previously forecast. But the city has to pay for police and transportation costs. A fundraising effort has already raised $16 million to help cover the city\u2019s cost.<\/p>\n

In 2011, Aaron Peskin, the former president of the city\u2019s board of supervisors, sued the board of supervisors to pressure for an environmental review of the sites being used. A settlement was reached in 2012, and one result was that the city dropped its long-term leases of nine city piers to the America\u2019s Cup organizers. Peskin also\u00a0created a petition on Causes.com, asking for Ellison to cough up<\/a>\u00a0the funds the city would be need to cover police and transportation costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is that because no one is actually showing up, their costs are going down,\u201d said Peskin, who lives on Telegraph Hill where he has a view of the festivities down at Pier 27. \u201cThis whole thing was predicated on somewhere between 12 and 15 teams from around the world.. It turned out to be three and Oracle, which is as exciting as watching paint dry.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, Avalos called up Peskin and asked him to go outside and see how many people were attending a race. \u201cI went out there with some binoculars,\u201d he said. \u201cI said, \u2018Do you want me to count them for you?\u2019 There were maybe 100 people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jane Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the city at the America\u2019s Cup, said that as attendance projections have fallen to about 2 million visitors to the cup, versus 2.9 million previously, so have the city\u2019s costs, originally estimated at $32 million. \u201cWe see the fundraising and the city\u2019s costs getting very close together,\u201d she said. In general, she said \u201cwe are very pleased that the city is filled with visitors.\u201d She added that the city has done major improvements, just like many do getting ready for a big party, which will remain after the cup is over.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe view of the city that is being beamed around the world, as an ad for San Francisco, you could not ask for anything better,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cThat is almost un-quantifiable.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the semifinals get started this month, economist Randolf and some of his researchers will interview visitors to get a sense of how much they are spending in the city, how long they are staying and other data.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still very much in play. I would sum it up we know the economic impact will be less than it was originally projected,\u201d he said. Is the America\u2019s Cup going to be a billionaire\u2019s bust? \u201cIt\u2019s too early to go there,\u201d Randolph cautioned. \u201cIt\u2019s quite correct to point to the things that haven\u2019t gone as expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

That may turn out to be the understatement of the year, but it\u2019s not over until the fastest boat wins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Therese Poletti, MarketWatch Getty Images Oracle Team USA passes the Golden Gate Bridge while training for September’s America’s Cup regatta on Aug. 7. SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) \u2014 In February 2010, a jubilant Larry Ellison and San Francisco Mayor\u00a0Gavin Newsom\u00a0stood together at City Hall to celebrate Ellison\u2019s team winning the coveted America\u2019s Cup, the oldest trophy … Continue reading WHAT HAPPENS TO SAN FRANCISCO?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[632],"tags":[525],"class_list":["post-6732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americas-cup-34-2","tag-americas-cup-34"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6733,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6732\/revisions\/6733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}