Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: We might have to leave the America's Cup alone

As predictably as the clock striking 12 twice a day, here we are after an America's Cup win talking - yet again - about whether the Cup should be held in New Zealand.

In one corner, there's Helen Clark - who says Kiwis want to witness a successful event at home. And in the other corner, there's David Seymour who says we're too broke.

Look, I think I'm probably like most people - it'd be nice if it was here, but I just don't want us to waste money on it. This has, above all, got to be treated as a business decision.

Because that's what this is. It's a business decision for Grant Dalton. He will sell the hosting rights to the highest bidder, like he did this time round with Barcelona, who were prepared to pay more than we were to host the event.

And that is the right thing for him to do, he'd be a fool to take less than the highest offer.

And it is a business decision for New Zealand too, we should be preprepared to pay to host the cup - but no more than we can make off it. There's no point whatsoever in losing money on the America's Cup, which is what happened last time when we lost more than $150 million - which, to be fair, was exacerbated by Covid.

But we shouldn't be expecting any favours from Grant, just because he's a Kiwi citizen and we're a bunch of Kiwis.

And if we accept it’s a business decision, we have to strip out the lingering anger at Grant Dalton's attitude, we have to strip out the nonsense about sailing being an elitist sport and we have to strip out any kind of sentimentality about having a nice event here.

We don't 'deserve' a nice event if it's going to cost millions and millions of dollars that we don't have because we're broke.

This is a transaction, in which we want to make money. We want to come out in the black on this one.

And then, we also have to accept another fact - we're playing with the big boys and some of those guys have very deep pockets. So even if we put our best foot forward, it might not be enough and we have to leave it at that.

Because if the event comes back, it should be because New Zealand wants to make money off it - and no other reason.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, well as predictably as the clock striking twelve twice
a day. Here we are with another America's when America's
Cup went under our bouts, and we're talking yet again
about whether the America's Cup should be held in New Zealand.
And one corner you've got Helen Clark who says kiwi's
need to and want to witness a successful event at home,
so it's all about the fields. And then the other corner,

(00:20):
David Seymour says, we're two brokes, so it's all about
the dollars. Look, I think I'm like most people. It
it'd be nice if it was back here. I wouldn't
say nos that I'd enjoy it. I'd go out and
go watch it, wouldn't you. But I don't want us
to waste any money on this right. This has to
be above all treated as a business decision, because that's
what it is. It is a business decision. It's a

(00:42):
business decision for Grant Dalton. He will sell the hosting
rights to the highest bidder, like he has this time
around with Barcelona, which was prepared to pay more than
we were to host the event, and that is the
right thing for him to do to treat it as
a business decision, he would be a fool to take
less than the highest offer, and it's a business decision
for New Zealand as well. We should be prepared to
pay to host the America's Cup, but no more than

(01:03):
we can make of it. There's no point whatso we
ever in losing money on the America's Cup, which is
what happened last time around when we lost one hundred
and fifty million bucks plus, which to be fair, was
exacerbated by COVID. But we shouldn't be expecting some sort
of a favor from Grant, because Grant is a Kiwi
citizen and we're a bunch of Kiwis. If we accept
it's a business decision, we're going to have to strip
out the lingering anger that we appear to have at

(01:24):
Grant Dalton's attitude in his way of going about stuff.
We have to strip out the nonsense about sailing being
an elitist sport. It may or may not be, but
it's also something we're just damned good at and we
should be proud of. And we also have to strip
out any kind of sentimentality that we deserve to have
some sort of a nice event here. You don't deserve
to have a nice event if it's going to cost
us millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars

(01:45):
that we do not have because we're broke. This is
a transaction in which we want to make money. We
want to come out in the black on this one.
And then on top of all of that, we have
to accept another fact, which is we're playing with the
big boys now. We're playing with the Saudi Arabias and
the Barcelonas, and some of those guys have got very
deep pockets. And it already sounds if you listen to
the people in Team New Zealand, it already sounds like

(02:05):
we don't really have a shot. So even if we
do put our best foot forward, it might not be enough.
We're just gonna have to leave it at that, because
if the event comes back, it should be coming back
because New Zealand wants to make money off the event.
Nothing else. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen
live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,

(02:26):
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