| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NZ Cup loss hits where it hurts
By Grant Holloway, CNN Sydney
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (CNN) -- The loss of the America's Cup sailing trophy on Sunday is more than just a blow to New Zealand's sporting ego -- it strikes a painful financial nerve as well. Such was the benefit to New Zealand's economy of hosting the big-spending sporting event, Prime Minister Helen Clark has already indicated her government would consider helping fund a challenge to win back the trophy from the Swiss. The America's Cup -- the world's oldest internationally contested sporting event -- is the plaything of some of the world's richest individuals. Whichever city hosts the Cup gains a direct boost in economic activity not just from the event itself, but also in the years and months leading up to racing as challenging teams establish their operations. New Zealand has been the beneficiary of the America's Cup spin off since 1995 when Team New Zealand lifted the trophy from a syndicate based in San Diego, California. The Auckland-based New Zealand syndicate successfully defended the trophy against an Italian challenge in 2000. An economic impact study performed at that time estimates the Cup generated an extra $NZ 640 million ($350 million) in business activity – a significant amount for this Pacific nation of just 4 million people. A similar study is currently underway with results expected in the second half of this year. It's not just the sailing industry and Auckland restaurant and hotel trade which gained from holding the regatta -- New Zealand's burgeoning tourism industry also received a healthy boost, hence the government's eagerness to win the trophy back. "We see considerable benefits," Clark told radio listeners Monday. The America's Cup gave New Zealand a permanently higher platform off which to project "our brand, our tourism, everything about New Zealand", she said. "It has been a great success for New Zealand. You can't run your economy around a single event, but while the platform is there you use it to the full, and we've done that." SquanderedThe America's Cup disappointment is the second loss of a major money-spinning sporting event for the New Zealanders. Last year the New Zealand Rugby Football Union was dumped as co-host of the 2003 Rugby World Cup, which is now being held exclusively by Australia. The Australian Rugby Union estimates the World Cup, which begins in October this year, will generate an estimated Aust. $1 billion ($600 million) in economic activity with 45,000 official in-bound tourists. A solid proportion of that economic activity would have been bound for New Zealand as well, but mismanagement led to the opportunity being squandered. The powerful New Zealand All Blacks rugby side is one of the favorites to win the World Cup and such a success on the playing field would serve to heal some deep psychological wounds in the rugby and sailing-mad nation. Repairing the economic damage is going to depend on New Zealand's highly respected sailors and boat-builders doing the near-impossible somewhere off the coast of Europe some time in the next three years.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
