M
~misfit~
UCLAN said:
Depends on their input really.
Silly you indeed.
Let's speculate, I'll outline a theoretical situation for your edification:
Let's say that there are 17 sponsors. (In fact there are probably far more.
I picked up a brochure in my local branch of an electronics chain-store
yesterday and, on page one, it says, in a large font, "Proudly sponsoring
Emirates Team New Zealand". I had no idea that they were a sponsor and I
shop there so often I have a "VIP" card and get a discount).
Emirates is obviously the major sponsor, to have naming rights. Let's say
that they provide 25% of the funding for the team. There are three other
major sponsors, Toyota, who get their logo on the boom and their name on the
hull, Estrella Dramm, who also get space on the boom and hull, and finally
Tourism NZ/NZ Trade and Enterprise who get secondary naming rights. Let's
say, for argument's sake that Toyota and Estrella Damm both put in 15% (They
are listed by TNZ as "elite sponsors") and the TNZ/NZT&E organisations put
in a further 15%. There's 70%
Now, it's well-known in NZ that the government. or more correctly the
taxpayer (we have a "Minister of the America's Cup", Trevor Mallard) has
also put money into the campaign. Shall we say 10%? Now we're up to 80%. On
the Emirates Team New Zealand web site (http://www.emiratesteamnz.com/) they
name a further 13 companies as "contributers". (My electronics store isn't
one of those). Shall we say 1% each for the 13? Now we're at 93%. I guess
the electronics store and several other business' that I've seen proclaiming
themselves as supporting the AC team make up the other 7%, along with the
many donations by wealthy individuals and the very active supporters club
who have had lots of fund-raising activities, celebrity auctions and the
like. There, 100%.
Obviously all of the above is merely educated speculation as they don't make
this stuff public. However, I'd say that, generally speaking, it's close to
the truth.
So you see, your supposition that "one gets most of it's money from it's
largest sponsor" is in fact wrong. In the theoretical scenario above it in
fact only gets one quarter, 25% of it's money from it's largest sponsor. Not
"most" by a long shot. Most is > 50%. I'll bet you my left testicle that
Emirates doesn't provide more than 50% of the funding for ETNZ. (Actually,
make that my right testicle, it slightly smaller and has a mildly perturbing
lump on it's surface).
Got it yet?
Yeah but, historically, around 95% of the races are won by the team which
leads at the first mark.
Indeed. It also has to be built in the country that the boat represents.
(Lots of lost income there from the days when a lot of syndicates bought
NZ-designed and made boats). It could be argued that the boat is one of the
few things that is actually representative of the country it races for.
Computer geeks and designers, it's still talent. ETNZ is acknowledged to be
able to sail higher and faster upwind, especially in light winds, than any
other boat in the LV cup. Do you dismiss this as it's nothing to do with
"real sailors"?
Yes, and that was a brain-fart/typo. When read in context most readers would
have realised that I meant to write grinders, not trimmers.
For sure. However, it's not the grinders who make the decisions, they just
turn the handles when told.
Correct. I didn't realise that you were going to nit-pick or I would have
been more accurate and said "first-name sponsor". It would seem that Larry
had to squeeze BMW for more money this time around to inject into the NZ
economy. All those highly-paid Kiwis are most likely going to bring it home
when they're done raking it in.
Really. Get those American navigators and tacticians off the NZ boat.
Heh! Yeah, just as soon as the other syndicates are forced to let us have
our NZ guys back. Take Alighi. Murray Jones, Alinghi's strategist, Brad
Butterworth, their tactician and Mike Drummond, the navigator. All NZers.
Personally. I'd swap any of them for the Americans on ETNZ in a heartbeat.
I didn't look into the other syndicate's crews as my internet connection is
slow today and they all seem to have bandwidth-intensive sites but I think
you get the picture.
Ok. I wondered what was behind your backing of anyone who sails against
ETNZ. There is a (mostly) good-natured trans-Tasman rivalry between Aussies
and NZers that would have explained it. Otherwise I'm at a loss to explain
the anti-NZ sentiment you exhibit.
Oh yeah.
I wish. Sadly, the bottom line is money. If we can get to witness some good
matchracing along the way well then that's great.
Cheers,