Valencia among the venues candidate to host the 37th America’s Cup.

Valencia’s successful history in hosting the America’s Cup (2007 and 2010, with the 2007 event arguably one of the most successful America’s Cup ever), its existing, ready-for-use, tailored infrastructures made positioning Valencia’s as potential host for the next event obvious.

The process of obtaining the exclusive rights to candidate Valencia as host for the next America’s Cup has been carried out by Francesco de Leo and Niccolo Porzio di Camporotondo (Kaufman & Partners/H2O Riders Science & Management) and Carlos de Beltran (Real Club Nautico de Valencia). In early 2021, documentation was presented to position Valencia as a possible venue for the next event in the chance Auckland was not confirmed. The New Zealand Government and Emirates Team New Zealand (winner of the 36th America’s Cup) had a 90 days negotiation period to agree on this confirmation. The group agreed it was inappropriate to raise this initiative with local, regional, and central authorities before the termination of these negotiations. These negotiations have expired today.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Spain is looking to stimulate the economic recovery by promoting its brand, Marca España, to reactivate the critical sectors as tourism (teams and families alone injected €100+ million in the economy during the 2007 edition). Furthermore, hosting the oldest trophy in sports for the third time will help accelerate this recovery, bring a top event to Spain, and make Valencia the European America’s Cup hub.

Nevertheless, while the working group recognizes this opportunity, it understands the dynamics of the current financial realities. For this reason, the objective is to initially secure private funding, able to underwrite the costs of the event, and then aligning the project with the Next Generation Recovery Funds.