Michael Moynihan: Farewell to America’s Cup 2024 — foundered on lack of political will

Spectators on their boats wait for the day three races of the 36th America’s Cup in Auckland last March. Proposing to spend exchequer funds to help people to sail their solid-gold boats seems almost perfectly designed to irritate many people, given yachting’s elitist image. Picture: Gilles Martin-Raget

FAREWELL, then, America’s Cup 2024. We hardly knew you. You never came, we never saw, and nobody got conquered.

Yesterday, we learned that the great international sailing competition would likely not be held here in Cork after all (an announcement to confirm as much was due today).

Our hopes were up on Monday but took a bit of a dive on Tuesday, and finally foundered on the rocks on Wednesday: the end of the America’s Cup dream, or the worst Craig David song of all time. Take your pick.

Should we be disappointed or relieved, or both? Personally, I think both sensations can be accommodated.

For instance, here was an event which had all the potential in the world to put Cork on the map, to pull in huge investment and generate revenue in the city — and to cause huge division.

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If you doubt me, consider the report of Eoin English earlier in the week, when we were giddy with notions of thousands of well-heeled visitors hopping off the train with wheelbarrows of cash they were hoping to unload in Cork.

At this early stage in our short-lived but highly excitable relationship with the America’s Cup, we were very much in ‘whatever you want, we’ll do it’ mode.

Eoin reported: “Cork Chamber, vintners, and hoteliers have urged the Government to commit to spending an estimated €150m to stage the huge global sporting event in and around Cork Harbour ahead of an expected decision from race organisers...

“A cost-benefit analysis by consultants EY has shown that it could be worth up to €500m to the economy, could generate 2,000 jobs, attract up to 2.5m visitors, generating between 9m and 11m bed nights, and be watched by an estimated 900m TV viewers globally.”

Ah, the generating of a windfall for the local economy. Think of that as the first sit-down dinner of the courtship, when things have advanced beyond mauling behind the DJ box, or whatever the modern equivalent of such opening gambits may be.

The cash value of such a windfall often appears to be snatched from somewhere in the upper ozone, though in fairness there appeared to be some attempt at a rationale here, with relatively concrete figures provided for hotel bed nights and job creation.

But this is also where the serpent enters our paradise, because job creation pointed up a likely flashpoint if this competition had ever landed on our shores, or a few hundred yards from our shores to be more precise.

This is because the America’s Cup is an event for the seriously wealthy.

“The entry fee for the 2021 America’s Cup is $2m per team — but that is barely the tip of the iceberg,” said Yachting World earlier this year. “The cost of running a team, developing some of the most high-tech boats in the world, the support crews, sailors and infrastructure runs to tens of millions.

“During the 2013 America’s Cup, Oracle Team USA, underwritten by billionaire Larry Ellison was rumoured to have spent around $200m securing their eventual victory.”

With that in mind, would it have been appropriate for the Government to put exchequer funding — your taxes, in other words — into smoothing the way for billionaires, into giving them a frictionless experience in Cork?

Take the logic a step further and look at what was proposed by way of preparation, or how this €150m was to be spent.

“€50m on event costs,” wrote Eoin, “much of which could be recouped through sponsorship and ticket sales, and €100m on infrastructure costs, including the electrification of the Cork to Cobh rail line and improvements along the city’s Kennedy Quay which would host a fan and racing village.

“Talks are also underway about the construction of a hydrogen plant on a site in Crosshaven to produce the fuel for use by the racing fleet’s support boats.”

I’m not qualified to talk about the long-term benefits of a hydrogen plant, nor its short-term benefits, but electrification of the rail line and improved facilities along the quay would presumably have been intended as long-term improvements that would benefit the region.

However, isn’t there a recognition here that those facilities, rail and quay, are in need of improvement?

Furthermore, isn’t there a tacit admission by the Government that it can make funding available for such improvements?

After all, if those funds were on hand with the America’s Cup coming, surely they remain on hand with the America’s Cup not coming?

The news that the event will not be arriving may disappoint yachting fans, but what about the large numbers of people who are fans of decent rail services and good outdoor facilities?

Aren’t they worth facilitating, given most of them... live here, and are not people who would be visiting for a short time before sweeping off in their yachts, literally, to the next port of call?

There’s no sidestepping the fact that proposing to spend exchequer funds to help people to sail their solid-gold boats seems almost perfectly designed to irritate many people, given yachting’s elitist image.

(Correction: elitist reality.) You don’t need to be a paid-up Marxist to ask why those who have the wherewithal to enter the race in the first place don’t pay for the works necessary to accommodate their competition.

A number of fans take their boats to watch Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli compete at the 36th America's Cup in Auckland on March 13, 2021. Picture: Michael Bradley/Getty Images

Accordingly, we may have ducked years of recrimination and point-scoring about how funding the event. Which is kind of disappointing, I have to admit.

But there’s another angle here that’s worth considering. In his report yesterday consigning the bid to Davy Jones’ locker (avast there with the nautical terminology — ed), Eoin noted: “The Irish Examiner has learned that the Government in recent days requested more time — with some suggesting they asked for another six months — to consider the costs and potential financial benefits. Sources said there appeared to be no political will to back the event.” Hmm.

The knee-jerk reaction here would be to surmise that the political will to back the event might have been stronger if it were intended for Howth or Dun Laoghaire, maybe.

This is so obvious a response that the exasperated reaction is easy to imagine: touchy provincials immediately on the look-out for a snub.

But is there something to be said for the knee-jerk reaction at times? What we’ve learned over the years, often to our cost, is that if the political will exists for something then that tends to overshadow other elements when making the final decision.

As in: if the will exists then a project has some chance, all things being equal. But if the will doesn’t exist then all things end up being irrelevant, not equal.

For all the fun I’ve had at its expense, I can’t help thinking that in time to come this lack of political will may appear even more short-sighted than it does this morning. And this morning it looks very short-sighted indeed.