America’s Cup: Expansion plans confirmed after 2.5m attend in Barcelona
Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton has provided insight into plans for the continued growth of the America’s Cup, given early media speculation about future venue opportunities, confirming the event may seek a different venue that can accommodate more teams.
This year’s event in Barcelona welcomed a total of 2.56m attendees over 59 days, from 22 August to 19 October 2024. Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, has now won the America’s Cup three times in a row, and this presents an unprecedented opportunity for the continued growth of the event.
Emirates Team New Zealand’s chief operating officer, Kevin Shoebridge, has confirmed that the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron has already accepted a challenge from INEOS Britannia for the next America’s Cup.
The 37th America’s Cup event saw a diverse audience, including local residents and visitors from both national and international locations. Attendance figures were tracked daily by the Host Partners Group, which includes ACE Barcelona SL, across various venues such as the Race Village, Fanzones, team bases, hospitality areas, and through on-water viewing experiences that involved 243 superyachts.
Image courtesy of Ricardo Pinto and America’s Cup.
“The Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup has confirmed the America’s Cup as one of the unique properties in international sport, so it is our objective to build on the success of AC37 and continue the growth we have been seeing since we first won the America’s Cup in 2017,” says Dalton. “We are looking to increase audience and engagement across different regions, territories and demographics.”
The America’s Cup has expanded in various aspects in recent years, including the successful implementation of the Puig Women’s America’s Cup, the Unicredit Youth America’s Cup, and the AC Sailing E-Sport World Championship, as well as advancements in sustainable marine power, demonstrated by hydrogen-powered foiling chase boats.
“As a result of these successes, we know we have a number of valuable properties that we wish to continue building,” says Dalton. “We are keeping an open mind on how best to achieve this with a venue, or different venues, that can supercharge 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.”
Image courtesy of Ian Roman and America’s Cup.
Dalton says discussions with teams indicate a collective interest in the continued commercial growth of the America’s Cup, matching trends seen in other leading global sports.
He adds that attendance figures this year were “well aligned with those that were projected and estimated before the event.” He adds: “From initial indications, we know we are well on track to reaching our growth targets of a 50 per cent increase in total broadcast and media audience from the 36th America’s Cup.”
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