Team New Zealand organizer and winner last Saturday of the 37th edition of the Copa del América, announced this Tuesday afternoon that it rules out holding the next edition of the sailing competition in Barcelona. In a press release titled “Looking to the future, building on the success of Barcelona”, the organization quantifies the audience attending the event at 2.5 million people from August to this month and celebrates a 50% increase in television audiences. Their leader, Grant Dalton is committed to continuing to grow and assures that “it would be difficult to expand the number of teams depending on the infrastructure space available in Barcelona.” “As a result of these successes, we know we have several valuable properties that we want to continue to build. “We remain open-minded about the best way to achieve this with a venue, or different venues, that can enhance the 38th Copa América with a greater global footprint, more teams and greater opportunities for overall expansion,” he says in the text.
“We are looking to increase audience and participation in different regions, territories and demographics,” adds the CEO of America’s Cup Event and the New Zealand team. The brief statement of the kiwis settles speculation about whether the so-called Formula 1 competition of the sea will hold its next edition in Barcelona, when neither the team nor the government of the Mayor Jaume Collboni They had spoken publicly about the future.
Meanwhile, the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, and the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, both from the PP, They returned to the fray this Tuesday with their offer for the city to host the Copa del América again, after concluding last Saturday their 37th edition in Barcelona. The PP has always defended the economic and advertising impact of the 2007 and 2010 editions held in the waters of Valencia, to the point that Mazón has referred to it as “the natural home” of the nautical competition.
“I have already said that I have done, do and will do everything possible to return the Copa América to its natural home, which is Valencia, and that incomprehensibly (former president Ximo) Puig and -former mayor Joan- Ribó let it escape,” he said. stated the Valencian president when asked about the issue. Both “lowered their arms in a way that was insulting to the Valencian people,” so they will remain in the “dynamic of continuing to try no matter how difficult it may seem,” Mazón added, in statements reported by Efe.
Before Barcelona’s election, Grant Dalton, manager of the defending champion sailboat now revalidated, the Team New Zealand, He tested the possibility of this last edition being held in Valencia. However, the previous City Council, governed by Compromís and the PSPV-PSOE, and also the left-wing Generalitat, rejected the offer due to its cost and a very dubious return. They estimated the fee at around 80 million euros and added other amounts in various concepts, which raised the final cost of the event for public administrations to around 120 million euros. Compromís had been especially belligerent with the organization of the Copa del América in 2007 in Valencia, unlike the socialists.
The works of construction of the new Marina of the port of Valencia, that were carried out for the 2007 competition, cost close to 320 million. Finally, the Government of Spain assumed the payment of the ICO loan to achieve the project, after the lack of funding from the Consortium. The Government, the Generalitat and the Valencia City Council had created a consortium to pay for La Marina and exploit it. This space has become a new leisure center for the city and a hub for technology and entrepreneurship companies. The Navy is the greatest legacy of the 2007 competition.
The mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, added this Tuesday one more reason to her argument in favor of the Copa del América. He assured that it is consistent with the desire to restrict tourist apartments because their impact is not punctual but permanent. “The Copa América event, as we are studying it, meant that many members of the teams came to live in Valencia and many people have stayed. It is not a one-time tourism but a permanent economic impact over time and in that sense, when there is an impact that remains and is positive, we have to value it in a different way,” Catalá explained in statements to the media.
“In Valencia, instead of betting on tourism low cost‘For tourism that lasts for hours, which does not generate impact, we must bet on specialized, quality tourism that generates impact and within that strategy I see our strategy for the Copa América as absolutely coherent,’ said the first mayor, who aims to continue in the wake of Rita Barberá, the mayor of the PP (who died in 2016) who achieved the election of Valencia as the headquarters by the team then defending the title, the Swiss Alinghi.
When asked about the debt that the event left in the municipal coffers, Mayor Catalá indicated that if the event is again chosen, the administrations should promote it but the private sector would have to collaborate. “Things change and we always work on these events with the presence, if possible, of private sponsors who contribute to these issues. We think that the administration can promote it but that if there is a return, the private sector also has to help,” he said.
“The truth is that it is not an issue that we discard. It is an issue on which we work calmly and prudently and it must be seen. We think that it is an event that at the time brought benefits to the city. We are going to work to recover,” Catalá explained in statements to the media. “I said it during the electoral campaign, I am not saying anything that I did not say at the time, but it is true that the previous government, both regional and local, gave up and lost the opportunity for the benefit of Barcelona, it has generated a serious competitor, which It is Barcelona, which has made some facilities and which is obviously a competitor that did not exist and now we have,” he added.
Collboni’s government remains silent
In Barcelona, for now the government of Mayor Jaume Collboni has not publicly commented on the continuity. In public the mayor and socialist councilors have applauded the holding of the competition, but in private they maintain that they have no intention of repeating the experience if it costs money to the public coffers. This time the city has paid about 70 million euros to become the headquarters. The idea is not to speak out until Grant Dalton does. After winning the regatta, the Team New Zealand sailboat showed a flag of gratitude to the city last Saturday: “Many thanksBarcelona”, without clarifying whether see you soon or goodbye. “All the administrations have been incredible for how they have welcomed us since we arrived,” shared the head of the New Zealand team. The city’s employers, unions and lobbies have applauded the initiative, which they have seen as a way of showing that the page has definitely been turned. processes independence and that Barcelona once again attracts major international events.
Beyond the expense, in Barcelona the difficulty of the administrations to seduce a citizenry that until the last days of the competition has not responded to expectations has not helped either. There have been expressions against, such as a demonstration a week before the finalbut above all, no attention on the part of the people of Barcelona in the face of a competition about which they also Television audience and public figures have been questioned on which studies favorable to its celebration were based.
