is almost absolute. And that is something very dangerous – an unfounded rumour about a controversial issue, which there always is, can quickly become news that discredits both the America’s Cup and particularly the organisers, ACE.
In Barcelona the Primavera Sound music festival is very famous but a top ‘song’ this year was about the possible refusal of the American team to compete in Jeddah. Also each summer the Grec Festival, dedicated to theatre and music, takes Barcelona by storm; but a trendy song this time has been ‘The stores of the bases’. And truly this one is a potential blockbuster.
More than two months ago a longstanding Cup contact intimately connected with ACE and its staff explained to me that there was a big problem with the sale of team clothing and merchandising. Accord- ing to my always excellently informed source, the Americans had complained about their disadvantage selling their products because their base is inside a superyacht shipyard with no public access. Obviously it seemed to me that the solution provided by ACE and Team New Zealand of creating one common store with clothing from all the teams and from the event itself would partially resolve this concern. Then everything blew up but in the opposite direction… Three days before writing this report a foreign friend wrote to me asking if I knew anything about the mess about team merchandise and the stores that had (we now know) led to complaints by at least two teams and a formal application to the Arbitration Panel. I then remembered the conversation with my friend a few months ago and I was simply amazed. I had not believed what he had told me: that for AC37 the teams, uniquely in the modern history of the Cup, are prohibited from selling their own merchandise from their own bases but must only distribute it through one single common store controlled entirely by ACE… and by Team New Zealand! Imagine you are Prada Luna Rossa, entertaining high net worth clients and distributors, demanding you can show them both this year’s collections with a preview of what will follow next season? Or Alinghi Red Bull Racing, a team historically famous for the work it puts into entertaining the public and sending them away with team clothing and other memorabilia. This approach to open hospitality and sales of clothing was one of the ‘secrets’ to the huge success
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of Valencia 2007, run by the Swiss Cup holders who also sent the challengers home with millions of euros in cash dividends generated by the event. Something that never happened before or since. Contrast the approach of the current holders, first selling the Cup venue, then the venues of the two ‘Acts’ to the highest bidders, with it feels little emphasis on non-financial factors.
So taking what my friends told me about the team stores ‘scandal’, I searched the official America’s Cup site and eventually found the Arbitration Panel’s response to the official request by Alinghi regarding the prohibition on teams being able to sell their products in the venue area, which evidently includes the teams’ bases in the Port of Barcelona. And if before finding the document I was already hallu- cinating, after reading the resolution I was petrified. I am not a legal expert, but it does not seem possible to me that this decision can be consistent with European and Spanish laws that protect free competition in any area related to trade, as Alinghi argued. It would not be strange for the Swiss team to take the case to the courts, but even if they won the response could arrive after October 2024 given how slow the Spanish and Brussels courts can be. This prohibition seems absurd to me. I understand that now many of the team sponsors, particularly those returning to the America’s Cup with experience and good financial returns from the previous sale of merchandise are quite upset. This matter has not gone away. I remember in Valencia 2007 all the people walking around the venue to visit the bases’ stores and buy souvenirs from their favourite team. Now it seems that ACE wants to monopolise all these sales and, even worse, has not even taken the precaution of reserving the best venue for their ‘megastore’ which is in a poor retailing location. The influx of people into and around the Valencian port was a unan- imously recognised success, something that unfortunately may now not happen in my beloved city except on regatta days when people will visit the beaches to watch the regattas from the distant shore. We all had high hopes for an amazing America’s Cup here in my city. We still have hopes, but the feeling is growing that Barcelona may be paying the most to receive the least in return. Perhaps I may be proved wrong? Carlos Pich
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