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in the world. Too much wind, too little wind, waves too big to be safe to foil at 30kt+. Lots and lots to trip you up. Local time for the 2017 Cup’s TV broadcast is from 13:00 to


15:00 hours. Come hell or high water, the show must go on. Damn the torpedoes, we are racing, as live TV is the key to worldwide exposure and following of this great sport. Like reading yesterday’s newspaper, yesterday’s packaged highlights do not keep you on the edge of your seat with anticipation of who’s going to win. This is a tough one. TV is the key and bad racing puts sailing


in a bad light, while no sailing could be worse. To a certain extent the ACWS and its TV exposure are in the hands of the gods. One way to hedge bets is venues. Can we get better racing on


TV with a better selection of venues? The one that sticks out is the downtown New York City waterfront regatta. Lots of current and very little wind between buildings. The racing was a lottery. The world’s best sailors or not, luck was the significant factor. Is that good or bad? As a competition, it is bad. But as an event,


as something that attracts public appeal, does having a team go from last to first on the final leg make it more interesting or just plain unfair? Does allowing one of the ‘weaker’ teams an equal chance to get lucky make for better viewing? Think of it from a non-sailor point of view, someone who wants


to be entertained by high-tech, high-adrenaline action. Someone who is going to take the time to come down to the waterfront for the day and watch. Because that is also a must with TV exposure. The exposure formula goes something like this: live TV is the


key to mass exposure. Races need to start and finish to a schedule that works for live TV. Going hand in hand with that is making the racing spectator friendly so that the public (lots and lots of public) will take the time to come down to stand on the shore to watch the races and cheer their team on. Without cheering fans watching, the TV falls flat. Only the most


diehard fans will tune in. Picture a huge 60,000-seat stadium with the two very best teams playing. Only thing is there are just a dozen people watching. No crowd roar, no flags or signs, no cheering or booing the referee, just empty seats and silence. Because there is no vibe at the event, there will be no vibe on TV either, no matter how good the commentators are. It’s a package, and one half needs the other. When the total pack-


age starts to click, the competition becomes secondary to the show. ‘It’s showtime!’ But to win that mass exposure game you have to get the formula right and all the pieces of the puzzle working together. When it does, if it does, you can get away with almost anything. It’s a strange world. In American football (or gridiron to the non-Yanks) they will sell out an enormous stadium to watch a three and a half-hour game where the ball is actually in play for only 11 minutes. That is less game time than in one ACWS race (and they have two or three races a day). The show at the stadium, and TV at home, are the keys. People


cheering dressed in their team’s uniform and delirious fans providing the energy to fuel the excitement. It is sport, but it has to be enter- taining at the same time. A big ask for a sailing regatta to deliver. Will it work? Will the America’s Cup racing go big time, like an American football game or Formula One? If the current Cup holders have anything to say about it, we are certainly going to find out. Orders from the current America’s Cup holder: stay on course 


and full steam ahead! SEAHORSE 25


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