Larry Ellison eyeing Honolulu for ’17 America’s Cup
—————————————————————————————————————
Larry Ellison sat in the quiet living room of his Woodside home and talked about what comes next, after winning the America’s Cup for the second time in September 2013, an epic victory being called “the comeback of comebacks.”
His vision for the next America’s Cup, detailed in a series of exclusive interviews over several months, involves the staging of regattas all over the world – leading up to the Louis Vuitton Cup, and the main event, the America’s Cup, likely taking place in Honolulu.
This competition would be a departure from anything done before, and would mean that – unless negotiations turn around – San Francisco will not be the host city for the next Cup.
While outlining his vision for the 35th America’s Cup, Ellison acknowledges that much needs to happen before his plan is a reality, and that Team USA CEO Russell Coutts remains actively – and earnestly – in talks with other venues, from San Francisco and San Diego to Newport, R.I.
Ellison’s ideas for the 35th America’s Cup advance his goal of attracting a wider audience to the sport of sailing and to the 163-year-old regatta. He called the races of the 34th America’s Cup “the most magnificent spectacle” he’d ever seen on the water and believes the regatta has “changed sailing forever.”
As for the next Cup, “we’re going to start with two years of globe-trotting, Formula One-style racing in AC45s,” Ellison said. “AC45s are inexpensive to build, transport, and sail. You can throw an AC45 and its support equipment and chase boats into a couple of containers and ship them to regattas all over the world: Shanghai, Tokyo Bay, Marseilles, the Port of Rome, anywhere.”
Ellison continued, “By using AC45s, we keep the costs to a manageable level, so we expect to have 12 teams entered in the 35th America’s Cup. The teams will be divided up into two divisions: Atlantic and Pacific. The Atlantic division will have teams from France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland. The Pacific Division will have teams from Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, and San Francisco, USA.”
Under Ellison’s plan, the top four finishers in the AC45 races during 2015 and 2016, two from the Atlantic group and two from the Pacific, would qualify to race in their division championships in the spring of 2017. The division championships would be contested in the new AC60s, a lot bigger than the AC45s and just as spectacular and fast as the AC72s, but not as expensive. (The AC72s were sailed in the 34th Cup.)
Ellison sees the Atlantic Division championship regatta being held in the Port of Rome and the Pacific Division championship in Shanghai. A couple of months later, the Atlantic and Pacific division winners will race their AC60s off Honolulu for the Louis Vuitton Cup. The Louis Vuitton winner would stay in Hawaii to race their AC60 against Oracle Team USA in the 35th America’s Cup.
Holding the Louis Vuitton Cup and the America’s Cup in Hawaii has been one of Ellison’s long-standing dreams. In June 2012, the Oracle Corp. co-founder and CEO purchased the island of Lanai for $300 million. It was a far-fetched fantasy that he’d had since he was in his 20s, when he first flew over one of Hawaii’s smallest inhabited islands in a Cessna 172 and was captivated by the thousands of acres of fragrant pineapple fields.
Having the America’s Cup on the waters off Honolulu would be a boon to Hawaii’s tourism and visibility.
“That’s the plan anyway,” Ellison said. “We have a lot of work to do. We have to make deals with all the cities where we want to hold races. It’s not going to be easy to pull this off. All that, plus we have to get an agreement with the Challenger of Record, the Hamilton Island Yacht Club of Australia.”
Ellison said the tradition of holding most of the races in one city doesn’t make commercial sense.
“The previous practice of going to only one city, Auckland or San Francisco or Valencia, and being in the same location for months at a time is not the best way to get fans all over the world excited about our sport,” he said. “It should be more like Formula One, where you have races all around the world and all of the races count toward the championship. People want to see Team China racing in Shanghai and Team Japan racing in Tokyo Bay. Now that’s exciting. But we have to keep the costs down to make sure that there is a Team China and a Team Japan.”
The key part of the next America’s Cup will be lowering the costs, so more teams can participate.
“To race an AC72 in San Francisco cost the teams at least $100 million,” Ellison said. “To race an AC45 all over the world in 2015 and 2016 plus an AC60 in 2017 will cost each team as little as $30 million, all in.”
This time, the AC45 racing would be more than a pretty preseason show leading up to the America’s Cup. Each AC45 race would determine whether you qualify for the division championship in AC60s in 2017.
“So the next America’s Cup actually begins with the AC45 racing in 2015,” Ellison said. “Every race is important – just like Formula One.”
He added, “We plan to have AC45 races in every country where we have a team: Auckland, New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; Shanghai, China; Venice, Italy – 12 cities in 12 different countries. The TV coverage should be stunning. Look at the AC45 regatta we held in Venice a couple of years ago. It was beautiful.”
Ellison also envisions creating a worldwide brand around the America’s Cup, and he remains convinced he can transform sailing into an “exciting and popular professional sport.”
But to do that, he said, “a lot needs to change. We want to keep the best of the past and combine it with modern technology. We want to create a 21st century sports business that will support sailing professionals and their families. Businesses that don’t make money are not sustainable. Sports that don’t make money are just hobbies for rich guys.”
—————————————————————————————————————
Note: This edited excerpt is from the new paperback edition of Chronicle staff writer Julian Guthrie’s book, “The Billionaire and the Mechanic: How Larry Ellison and a Car Mechanic Teamed Up to Win Sailing’s Greatest Race, the America’s Cup, Twice” (Grove Press; $16). The paperback details the behind-the-scenes drama of the 34th America’s Cup, and reveals for the first time Larry Ellison’s vision for the next America’s Cup.
——————————————————————————————————————-
Read more posts; America’s Cup
Sailing With Devious, 2014 