Given the apparent closeness of the previous campaign, it is no surprise thousands of Kiwis were excited to hear Grant Dalton announce Team NZ will challenge the next America’s Cup despite the venue remaining something of a mystery.
There is no doubt many of us enjoyed watching the monster cats thrashing it out on San Francisco Bay, however for others they resented the fact they had to help foot the bill for what they saw as nothing more than a rich man’s folly.
For this reason it has been interesting to observe the public response to Daltons’ plea for support to help fund the next campaign (which he recently stated is no longer urgently required), despite the Government saying the $36m we contributed last time generated a positive economic impact of $87m to the country.
Although I would argue the economic benefit to sponsors of Team NZ competing in the next (35th) event are easy-ish to justify given the exposure it is likely to generate, in the case of the New Zealand tax payer, it is somewhat harder to define especially when our chances of winning may be even tougher than the last. If we look back, it was entirely appropriate for the Government to say we as tax payers should help Team NZ try and secure another victory given we had an industry set up to benefit and an extraordinary opportunity to show case our ingenuity as a nation and indeed our country as a destination. However given we lost, I’m not convinced as many will see the argument to support the 35th America’s Cup to be as compelling as the 34th.
Prior to the lead up to San Francisco, there was a view within the team that they could mount a serious challenge and as a result, were able to convince their sponsors and we as a nation that they were worthy of backing. However, to say the benefits will be of equal value to the country this time round may be somewhat more difficult to substantiate.
If I were a sponsor, whether we won or lost would be less of an issue than the way the team conducted themselves and where the event was held. However for the NZ tax payer, it is a rather different proposition. If we knew we would win, most of us would accept the value of mounting a challenge makes absolute sense; however if we thought we might lose, I’m not convinced the same number would be willing to support it. The fact of the matter is, many of the businesses involved would benefit either way, but those who will benefit the most are of course the members of the team. In other words, if we as a nation chose not to back Team NZ, the industry itself would be unlikely to collapse (as other teams would pick up some of the slack), it’s just that the sailors themselves would miss out on the privilege of once again representing their country: given Team NZ positions itself as a national team with private sponsors rather than a sponsored team that originates from a particular country.
The fact ‘Team NZ’ is paid a rather generous amount for doing what they love irks people in much the same way as seeing CEO’s of failing companies somehow justifying themselves a pay rise. That doesn’t mean I believe they are overpaid if compared to other teams, but if we look at what they do and the way they live, it seems out of step for most people.
While it is important we have the conversation, the reason I believe there is still strong support for Team NZ is not so much because of the economic benefits we assume we would realise by mounting another challenge (or that the Cup would be a nonsense without them) but because we think we nearly won.
History will tell us Team USA won the 34th America’s Cup over Team NZ 9 races to 8. For many they will recall the outcome as being so close that ‘we only just lost’ or that ‘we very nearly won’. However if we examine the racing (outcomes) more closely, we would see the results weren’t so much a reflection of the similarity between the two teams, but the fact it took Oracle an awfully long time to figure out how to sail their boat following the expulsion of three of their crew members for cheating.
It is interesting to note that at one point Team NZ were sitting at 8 races to 1 meaning they only had to secure one more victory to bring the cup home. Team USA on the other hand were 8 - 1 down meaning they had to win eight races on the trot in order to retain it. Despite the enormous advantage Team NZ had, and the spirit of the nation behind them, many watched in disbelief as it somehow slipped from their grasp.
Although I understood why the nation crossed its fingers and hoped like crazy, I was confident Oracle would win even from that position. The reason I say this is because although Team NZ appeared slick to the masses, the Americans were in total disarray and yet despite their brokenness, they remained focussed and competitive; thereby suggesting to me that it was only a matter of whether they had the time to sort themselves out because they knew if they could they would take it out in the end.
The problem for most in situations like this (including spectators on the side line and those in and around the team) is they tend to look at the score sheet and form a view as to what appears easiest, rather than examining the capability in front of them and how it’s playing out, in order to predict the more likely outcome.
A scene I am sure will remain etched in the minds of many was when Jimmy Spittle said during one of the after race media conferences ‘imagine if we won, it would be remembered as one of the greatest comebacks in sporting history’ (or words to that affect). In my opinion he knew they could get the better of Team NZ if they were prepared to dig deep because he saw the Kiwis becoming ever more desperate to get the thing over before they ran out of luck; by that I mean the situation Team NZ found themselves in was, I would suggest, equally unexpected in both camps hence Dalton made the comment that if they don’t finish it off quickly it might come back to bite them.
As a performance specialist, I came to realise early on in my career that irrespective of how many more wins an athlete or team has to secure over another in order to take out a championship, it is no harder for them to achieve that than for their opponent – providing they have the capability and ‘know-how’ to create a winning mind-set – because as we all know, championship titles such as the America’s Cup only require a team to win the next race meaning it’s only ever about winning one race at a time.
So although I, like many, was disappointed we lost, had Team USA not cheated, and thus not been penalised and therefore disadvantaged, I suspect it would have been a white wash; hence the reason Team NZ need to keep the score card in front of us to prevent us from thinking too deeply about how they fared in the 34th if they want to retain our support to compete in the 35th.
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