Read this afternoon’s bit from the Bay Citizen‘s John Upton and then decide for yourself.
“San Francisco Appears to Be Only America’s Cup Bidder - Officials have failed to identify any competitors to host sailing event”
Tags: 2010, ACOC, Americas Cup, America’s Cup, Arnold Schwarzenegger, assembly, bay area, bay citizen, Bob Foster., Budget Analyst, california, crazy, Crazy Larry Ellison, Darrel Steinberg, David Chiu, Dianne Feinstein, gavin newsom, Governor, gray davis, Harvey Rose, Honorary Committee, house, italy, Jeanne- Marie Napolitano, Jerry Sanders, John Perez, john upton, la, La Maddalena, larry ellison, long beach, Maddalena, Mayor, nancy pelosi, Newport, oracle, pete wilson, president, Rhode Island, rome, ross mirkarimi, san diego, San Francisco, senate, Senator, spain, speaker, state, Supervisor, valencia
The other bidder is Vincenzo Oronato. This has been clear from the start. He doesn’t have to reveal a location (my guess is Sardinia), he only has to guarantee that his check will clear.
Vincenzo Oronato (Onorato?) has an Italian wikipedia page, but little information in English. And there seem to be very few details on what he is or is not promising. If San Francisco is, in fact, bidding against this guy, what’s to say he isn’t a shill bidder? Perhaps next America’s Cup Ellison will pretend to bid against some Italian city so as to extract the most tax money from them.
It seems really unlikely, even if SF were to drop its promises of free rent for 75 years, or raising hundreds of millions, that the America’s Cup will go anywhere else.