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Kiwis prepare for next challenge
AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- As Team New Zealand struggle to come to terms with their loss of the America's Cup, plans are already being put in place for a Kiwi challenge in Europe. However, there are serious questions about how they will raise the funds to repel raids on key team members. Victorious Swiss team Alinghi have yet to announce the dates and the venue for the 33rd America's Cup, but it is likely to be in 2007 so as not to conflict with the public and media attention of the 2006 Soccer World Cup in Germany. Even though this might suggest that Team New Zealand have plenty of time to prepare, the reality is that plans, and more importantly finance, must be put in place immediately if the team are not to haemorrhage as richer rivals take their pick of the best personnel. It was delays in setting up a proper structure in place for the succession of skipper Russell Coutts and tactician Brad Butterworth that led to one third of the 1995 and 2000 winning crews to defect from Team New Zealand. Top of any billionaires shopping list for an America's Cup challenge will be New Zealand sailors and in particular the members of the failed defender. Coutts and Butterworth have already stated that they are not for sale and will sail again for Swiss biotechnology billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli. Team New Zealand syndicate head Tom Schnackenberg says that he has every intention of carrying on. "This has been the most fantastic experience. We want to preserve this as a building block to build a formidable challenge next time." Setting up a challenge in Europe will be even more expensive than a defence in New Zealand, and key crew members like skipper Dean Barker will no doubt be able to command very high salaries elsewhere. At the closing press conference in Auckland, Schnackenberg and principal fundraiser Ross Blackman thanked the sponsors and were both keen to stress that the team lacked for nothing and that the failure should be put down to the management. "We never wanted for a dollar in our campaign. If we didn't win, it is our fault, not our sponsors," said Schnackenberg. But one suspects that the Team New Zealand sailors, who were asked to pay $5.00 each day for their lunches, looked enviously at the lavish spending on their former team mates in the large Alinghi base next door, nicknamed the "pink palace." For the 2003 defence Team New Zealand raised around $55 million, but it is estimated a 2007 challenge would require at least $20 million more. It is hard to see how the five main sponsors for the last three series would benefit from backing an offshore campaign in Europe as their prime interest is in the home market. The New Zealand Lotteries Commission and Telecom are likely to have marginal interest in the new America's Cup. Schnackenberg says that rich individuals like Bertarelli or Oracle boss Larry Ellison are not necessary, believing that the funding model the team have in place is viable. SAP, a German software company, was the biggest individual sponsor of Team New Zealand for the Cup in 2003, earning them the right to fly a large logo on the spinnakers. It is likely to be global companies like SAP that will be required by Team New Zealand if they are to move forward and the team only have weeks, rather than months, to put funds in place as key players are already being targeted by foreign teams.
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