Ellison Eclipsed By the Red Moon

Posted on May 21, 2007
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"But as the losses mounted against Luna Rossa, disgruntled supporters sent e-mails to the BMW Oracle team calling Ellison an egomaniac and questioning the team’s confident, corporate approach, which had propelled it to the top ranks of the favorites to race against Alinghi."

No way! Egomaniac? Puuhhhhllleeeeze, they are just jealous!

Actually, I am disappointed that BMW Oracle lost to Luna Rossa because it is called the America’s Cup and that means we are supposed to WIN! Actually, in all seriousness, the America’s Cup is pretty interesting (to follow, it’s boring to watch) because it some aspects it actually favors the challenger. The Cup defender only races against the challenger during the actual America’s Cup series, while the challenger has the benefit of racing, and winning, against the other challengers during the Louis Vuitton Cup series, the winner of which proceeds to the America’s Cup. On the other hand, the defender gets to establish the rules for the race, which would be like the winner of the World Series taking over Major League Baseball for the next season.

Sadly, America’s Cup yachting has become all about money these days with teams raising hundreds of millions of dollars to fund cutting edge boat design and the best crews who, irrespective of what country they are from, crew for whoever pays them the most. Indeed, Alinghi’s first crew was poached from Team New Zealand’s winning boat… and for the current series the nationality rule was ditched altogether.

The America’s Cup oversight organization is trying to transform it into a waterborne version of Formula One despite the fact that it’s drop dead boring to watch, isn’t amenable to spectators because it takes place off shore, and features weather related scheduling challenges that kill television broadcast schedules. Let’s also not overlook the fact that boating at this level is an endeavor reserved for billionaires that you and I have little in common with… NASCAR it is not except that big sponsors love it because of the association with luxury.

PS- yes, I am particularly proud of the title for this post.

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