Demolition has begun at Pier 27 to make way for the new facility that will be the hub of the 2013 America’s Cup, but things aren’t exactly smooth sailing for the much-ballyhooed regatta. The Bay Citizen’s John Upton notes growing doubts about whether the event will meet sponsors’ expectations now that only three competitors have forked over the $100,000 registration fee to challenge Larry Ellison’s Oracle Racing team with a June deadline looming.
Add: And that’s after organizers slashed the fee from the $1.3 million they were originally seeking. An excerpt:
Those three teams — Emirates Team New Zealand, Luna Rossa and Artemis — have begun building their boats at a special workshop in New Zealand.
“We're hopeful of having more teams outside of the teams that are already building,” Ian Murray, the regatta director, told The New Zealand Herald. “But the reality is the runway is going to run out in the not-too-distant future.”
