Chicago Got the Lucas Museum But Not the Cup

Have hard-bargaining Russell Coutts and Larry Ellison painted themselves into a corner?

You have to wonder, as yesterday it was announced that Chicago has been dropped as a possible site for the 35th America’s Cup. That means only two options remain: San Diego and Bermuda.

San Diego is a wonderful city that has hosted numerous America’s Cups before, and if the Cup is held off ‘America’s Finest City’ the racing would be inside San Diego Bay as opposed to far from land and the view of spectators as in previous Cups. But come on, San Diego is well-known for light- to very light-air sailing. Nobody is going to be hitting 45 knots on San Diego Bay, not even with the new 62-ft cats. And weren’t unprecedented raw speed and danger two of the elements that made the Cup on San Francisco Bay so attractive?

Bermuda? A British Overseas Territory located 640 miles off the coast of North Carolina, Bermuda has a pleasant climate and a long sailing tradition. And it would be the first time the Cup was held in a country where a majority of the citizens were black. On the other hand, it’s in the middle of nowhere, anything but cosmopolitan, and so crowded that car ownership is limited to one per household.

Before the start of the Finals on San Francisco Bay, the 34th America’s Cup had been a complete fiasco. Thanks to balls-to-the-wall competitive sailing between Oracle and the Kiwis on windy San Francisco Bay, plus Oracle’s ‘greatest comeback in the history of sport,’ Coutts and Ellison managed to pull a rabbit out of a hat. It looks to us as if they’re going to have to be even greater magicians this time around.