The letter begins like this: «Dear John». Where "Giovanni" is Gianni Chessa, regional councilor for tourism. And he closes as follows: "It is with deep regret that I have to conclude that the Cagliari event is no longer under consideration". Signed: Grant Dalton, CEO of the Americas Cup Events and the Emirates Team New Zealand.There are no more margins, therefore: none of the preparatory races for the most important regatta in the world will be held in the Golfo degli Angeli.
The thread of the negotiations broke after a long push and pull. And if the word seems to have come to an end for the event, the controversy is far from closed: Chessa, documents in hand, will soon make public the reasons that led first to the stalemate and then to the break, after the Region had allocated 6.1 million euros to finance the event of Luna Rossa and opponents.
The dialogue had been opened with Ace (America's Cup Event). Chessa, certain of the image repercussions for Sardinia, was ready to invest a lot of public money to host the first of the World Series challenges. But through emails and notes he had asked for numerous details on the real media impact, on who would manage the communication and many other specifics. The exchange went on for a while. Until the commissioner learned that the debut would be staged in Vilanova, Spain (with a public allocation of "just" three million, half of what was promised on the island). No Cagliari. There has been an attempt to focus on a subsequent stage, with a lower regional investment. Nothing will be done.
It turns out why Dalton's letter was delivered this morning.
"We very much appreciate that you reconsidered after Ace re-presented to you the vast amount of information and documents that had been sent to you in response to your questions over the course of several months," the America's Cup organizer writes to "John".
After last Friday's Zoom meeting, during which they tried to mend the rift, " I was told that you are of the opinion that there are still some questions that Ace has not answered".
A question that had been asked by the offices? "On which networks will the event be broadcast and in which territories?" Dalton replies polemically: «I'm sending you again the reply we provided earlier, in which we list the networks and territories in which AC36 was broadcast with an overall audience of 941 million viewers. The 36th America's Cup was the most watched ever, thanks also to the brilliant final between Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand».
The organizer also underlines that "the change of time", European, "is causing us to register an expected increase in interest from the television networks, but I cannot publicly disclose this information as it is up to each broadcaster to announce their participation , not to Ace."
Dalton provides other numbers: «I can tell you (given the AC36 data), that it is reasonable to deduce an increase in television coverage of up to 50%. I thought Nielsen's independent report, which used exactly this information that you are questioning in the assessment, would reassure you.
In short, Dalton argues that the councilorship would have been too fussy, even on issues that have already been addressed. But then it moves on to a hot topic: money. Which Chessa communicated that he did not want to pay in advance and in a single solution.
«I was also informed that, even after the signing of the contract, installments of payments cannot be made until 30 June and that 30-40% of the Contract would only be paid after the event. Ace», he writes, «is unable to accept this proposal, as we cannot operate with a negative cash flow and hope, after the event, to actually receive the remaining amount: these are imbalances in the cash flow box too big for a small organization.
For Dalton " it is a real shame that this aspect was not addressed a month ago, before receiving a further list of questions in recent weeks, to which we have answered". The final comment is on "unreal timing, caused in part by the issues that seem to remain pending for the Region". For this reason, no stage of the America's Cup, not even the preliminary stage, will take place in Cagliari.