This is the first time the event will be contested in Europe since it was first mooted in the Isle of Wight, England in 1851, whereupon it was instantly whisked away to America and practically nailed down there for more than a century.  In 1983 the Australian, Alan Bond caused a revolution by winning the trophy for the land down under and, since then, the Cup has travelled around four cities in the last 20 years:  Fremantle, San Diego (three times), Auckland (twice) and now Valencia.  Valencia is the first time the America’s Cup is being held in Mediterranean waters and, also, its first airing in a non-Anglophone world.  What effect will this unique sporting spectacle have on the City of Valencia?
 
The America’s Cup differs from probably any other major sporting event in that it is governed by a deed of gift.  In principle this determines simply that the winner of the event shall have the right to host the event and set the rules by which it is contested.  It is, in a sense, a winner takes all event and, while challengers may put themselves forward, the holders get to say how, when and where they may bid for the Cup. 
 
The Cup has always attracted the imagination of the rich and powerful.  Ted Turner, Larry Ellison and the Vanderbilt’s are some of the names associated with the race.  The latest big name to hold the Cup aloft is Ernesto Bertarelli of Swiss biotechnology and pharmaceutical corporation, Alinghi.  On winning it for land-locked Switzerland, Bertarelli had to find a seaside city to host the event.  In doing so he set alight one of the most fascinating bidding wars in recent sporting history.  
 
According to Marcus Hutchinson, Media Director of 32nd America’s Cup Company, it was the first chance to really test the marketing potential of the event; and in the world’s biggest and most competitive sporting market – Europe.   Hutchinson speaks admiringly of Alinghi’s organised and determined approach to selecting a venue and organising the event.  In fact, he says, Alinghi had a clear vision of what they wanted to do with the Cup even before they won the event.  “The sophistication of the Host City Agreement was pretty deep and it assisted in determining the quality of bids”.  
 
Alinghi saw themselves as the European holders of the cup and letters of interest were received from 60 cities, mainly in Europe.  These where eventually whittled down to 8 or 9.  There was a strong sense that the Cup would end up by the Mediterranean.  The Med with its year round sun, glamorous super-yachts and sailing friendly cities had the right image for the event.  Interestingly, bids came from cities, not countries.  And, while Hutchinson speaks of the obvious pedigree of the Spanish in hosting international events (the Olympics and the world expo), cities such as Barcelona, Palma (the home of the King Juan Carlos’ yacht club) and Valencia were pitted against each other.  With the candidates eventually pared down to 4 cities (from 4 different countries), the holders Alinghi left nothing to chance.  Binding Host City Agreements, refined by expert legal consultants on international event management, were signed in advance of selection with each city. 
 
To select the winning city, a multi-criteria analysis matrix was used.  For a yachting event, getting the right wind conditions is crucial and made up fully 50% of the weighting.  For a successful event, consistent wind velocities of between 5 and 25 knots are required.  In the most recent competition, held in yachting-crazy Auckland, 40% of sailing days were lost to inadequate conditions.  This is devastating for an event dependent on TV advertising revenue.  
 
But other factors are given consideration, including the capacity of the city to absorb, host and organise the event.  Eventually Valencia won the right to host the 32nd America’s Cup Challenge.  Its near ideal sailing conditions were a crucial factor but Hutchinson praises the “organisation, commitment and motivation” of the winning bid team.  Valencia showed a strong commitment to invest in developing a venue and supporting the 32nd America’s Cup Company.  An example of that commitment is the dedicated team whose sole function is to assist people travelling with the event to integrate into life in Valencia.  Hutchinson marks this down as a crucial winning factor given language barriers and a labyrinthine Spanish bureaucracy.  Alinghi had to decipher between realistic and unrealistic commitments.  One bidding city proposed to guarantee job offers to all travelling spouses, which just seemed unlikely give already high unemployment in that place.
 
And why would a city such as Valencia want to make such an effort to attract and host a transient sporting event?  Simple: the America’s Cup is big big business.  
 
12 teams are contesting for the right to challenge for the America’s Cup.  Hutchinson estimates that they will invest anywhere between €10m and €150m each in this effort.  Two thirds of this money will be spent in Valencia.  While the City has estimated it will invest around €500m in the event, much of this is spent in developing infrastructure that will serve the city for generations.  Plus, 32nd America’s Cup Company will invest a further €210m.  Much of this money will come from international media sponsorship and, given that it is a 10-fold increase in spending over the previous event in New Zealand, the growing impact of the America’s Cup in media terms is clear.
 
And a glance at the profiling of the event is quite staggering.  The America’s Cup is something of a glamour-pageant.  Alinghi take 400 to 500 VIPs through the America’s Cup base per day, each getting the full 5 star treatment aboard luxury cruisers and pretty swish hospitality centres.  For anyone, though, the base is a fun place to hang around and just to gape at the incredible super-yachts is an experience in itself.  On race days, one can lounge in the sun by the bars and restaurants watching events unfold on large open-air screens or take a charter and see the gruelling action up close and wet.  The challengers are fully aware of the media potential of the event and each teams base is bedecked with marketing collateral that ranges from fairly mundane merchandising stores to high-tech interactive multi-media showrooms profiling the sponsors products.  The Oracle-BMW centre is especially fun, while its hard not to want to walk away with some Prada fashionalia.    
 
Making the event happen are hundreds of international staff who work for 32nd America’s Cup Company.  This group of people are something of a phenomenon as many of them travel from city to city with the event and with their families.  This is a remarkable thing since, with each event, the ownership and rights to run the event are put up for grabs.  Thus, there are no long-term contracts with the America’s Cup.  Instructions come from the winning consortium and, at the end of each event, the operating company is literally disbanded.  That many of the operational staff at Valencia are now working on their 4th or 5th America’s Cup tells a story of commitment but also of love for the event.  Hutchinson reckons that 1,500 families from all over the world have arrived to Valencia as part of the event logistics.  On this particular week, tragedy struck as a young Swede was killed in a motoring accident.  The sense of solidarity among the travelling community was tangible as arrangements were being made to support the victim’s family. 
 
Holding the event in a Latin country is perhaps something of a culture shock for many of the staff, who previously dealt in the Anglophonic atmospheres of America, New Zealand and Australia.  The money that has poured into the event is also having an effect.  Walking around the base familiar faces from the previous event in Auckland are encountered.  They are no doubt pleased to be involved in the first showing of the Cup in the sun-soaked Med.  But after a while talk of a colder, more corporate atmosphere creeps into the conversation.  The event is big business now and that may diminish the community-like atmosphere that inspired previous events.  
 
The absence of a local service culture is a common complaint as well.  This is hardly surprising after an event most recently held in New Zealand and America; countries almost obsessed with delivering guaranteed customer satisfaction every time.  But this writer had to wait a long time for a few cups of coffee as well and is maybe not too surprised by such mutterings.  The Spanish are a laidback and carefree lot and those raised on tipping, prompt waitering and service-with-a-smile could easily misunderstand it.
 
Aside from big business aspects of the event, the America’s Cup has proven very effective in driving urban regeneration.  One of the great and lasting legacies of the Auckland series’ was the transformation of the formerly rundown Viaduct Basin into a lively, cultured harbour area of international standing.  Is the City of Valencia hoping for something similar to occur on their watch?
 
Elena Gala Munoz is Communications Director with Consorcio Valencia 2007, a company set up by the City of Valencia to manage the construction of the venue and to deliver on the Host City Agreement.  For Munoz the America’s Cup makes perfect sense for Valencia and her enthusiasm for the project is scarcely hidden.  She places the event and its impact in the context of the overall development of the city.  And, as it happens, there is a lot happening in the city.  The development of the America’s Cup Port is following a line of urban regeneration and civic architecture from the city centre out.  In the fabulous Turia Gardens, half way between the port and the city, the Ciutat los Artes e Ciences (CAC) is nearing completion.  The CAC, an impressive arts and science centre, designed by local but internationally famous architect, Santiago Calatrava, symbolises the regeneration of Valencia for many. 
 
Nearby, El Grau, a derelict industrial wasteland is earmarked for a massive urban development project to include 25,000 accommodation units.  Also, a project called Heineken Greenspace aims to combine cultural and urban development by recreating a warehouse complex as a new arts venue.  Munoz is less enthusiastic about the latter, though, as it is something of a competitive marketing scheme to the America’s Cup, which is sponsored by local brewer, Estrella Damm.  Nevertheless, such ambush-tactics only underline the impressive impact of the America’s Cup on the city and Munoz concedes that Greenspace acts as a good bridge to the CAC, the Turia Gardens and the city.  
 
This “line” of urban regeneration culminates in the Port where the America’s Cup Base is nearing completion.  According to Munoz: “The port was a bit sad.  We didn’t use the port.  Valencia had its back turned to the sea.  The America’s Cup is definitely the best thing that has happened to the Port of Valencia”.  
 
These returns are the result of a lot of effort and political backing.  Consorcio Valencia 2007 was set up as a semi-public organisation to represent the city in its bid for the event.  But there was strong backing from regional and central government.  The changing winds of politics in Spain during 2004, when the Socialist Party of Zapatero succeeded the Partido Popular (in controversial circumstances following the Atocha Station bombings in Madrid) helped the bid.  The Socialist Party believed in supporting urban projects and were interested in the America’s Cup.  
 
On winning the bid, the city signed a contract with the 32nd America’s Cup Company.  That contract included commitments to develop the harbour for the event and deliver a lot of infrastructure, including team bases, the media centre, a redesigned harbour and an astoundingly attractive event headquarters, designed by English architect David Chipperfield.    This building, named “Veles e Vents”, overlooks the channel and gives good views of the city and the matchracing courses.  Designed of 4 shining white slab-levels the layers appear to float over the channel as the racing teams pass.  The construction of a new harbour channel segregates the commercial harbour and creates a dedicated Cup Base.  The provision of 800 new moorings makes the city a real sailing destination.  
 
And more is to come.  While the main event-related infrastructure is more or less in place, a landscaped park is to be built alongside the new channel.  A 5-metre high wall will shelter it from wind and the noise pollution of the adjacent commercial port.   In addition to new infrastructure, much of the existing and historical architecture within the Base has been restored and integrated into the base activities.  The Base incorporates old and new and is a pleasant place to wander around. 
 
But Consorcio Valencia 2007 are not only thinking of the event itself.  Theirs is a long-term perspective and they are focussed on what will happen to the Base if and when the event moves on.  After the Cup, leasehold of the Base and its buildings will return to the Consorcio.  That will include 200,000m2 of fairly specialised building space.  The challenge for the Consorcio is to find some way of reintegrating these into the life of the city if the event moves on.  Munoz talks of an international ideas competition. 
 
Nevertheless, the event has already had a positive impact on the life of Valencia and its inhabitants.  Whereas before the port was “like a lost space” and people bypassed it to go to Valencia’s beach and promenade, Munoz believes the port is now a “nice place to go with your family”.  And the soccer-mad Valencianos have a new sport to obsess about.  Strangely, with such an incredible seaside resource, Valencia never developed a sailing culture.  Perhaps it was considered the preserve of the rich, but now sailing and a chance to find work in a harbour-related activity is much more accessible to Valencia’s young.  It may take a while to develop.  On one charter excursion, a local crewmember was spotted dropping a fender over the side of the boat, as is the norm when preparing to moor.  However, the fender went flying into the harbour, as it wasn’t properly tied down.  A Latin shrug of the shoulders and nothing more was said.  In Auckland, you feel, that crewmember would have been tossed in after the fender.  
 
All that’s not to say Consorcio Valencia wouldn’t welcome the event to hang around.  Whoever the next winner is, and there is a Spanish team taking part, will most likely start the whole bid process all over again.  No doubt Valencia’s facilities and experience will put them in a great position.  And by the looks of things, between now and then they will be providing a good home for the America’s Cup on its first trip to the Med; and will be a better city for the experience.
 
Copyright 2006 Inspiring Cities