Work with me here, this is a bus ad seen yesterday:
Click to expand
Note that it doesn’t say “World Series race” or whatever. It says America’s Cup August 21st – 26th, 2012.
Was this thing broadcast on regular TV? I don’t think so. (Of course a small part of next year’s event will be on NBC, but only because NBC refused to pay a broadcast fee. San Francisco isn’t getting an event fee from Larry Ellison because he refused to pay one. And we’re on the hook for $30,000,000 to host this fiasco because why? Who approved this?)
Now there was live coverage on the Internet, but the worldwide audience was 195 souls when I checked during 2:00-4:00 PM prime-time yesterday. How many people have “crowded” the shore? A few hundreds?
And this is the start of the supposedly big event what’s supposedly bigger than all sporting events in the world bar the Summer Olympics and World Cup football? And this is the start of the supposedly big event what’s supposedly bigger than the Super Bowl and Euro soccer, you know, games where fans actually pay money to watch.
What if they gave an America’s Cup and nobody came? Because nobody cared.
Wouldn’t a renaissance festival in Golden Gate Park have a bigger “economic impact” than what we’re seeing from the America’s Cup? I think so.
Oh, but we won’t know because RPD, with its excessive fees for security guards / park rangers getting paid OT to sleep in their vehicles, chased the Golden Gate Renaissance Faire out of Golden Gate Park a few years back.
Why is the City Family so supportive of the America’s Cup and so against other types of events?
Oh, here we go, here’s a reporter actually reporting on the America’s Cup fiasco. (Note that this person works for the San Joser Mercury News…)
Oh, so per the SJMN, it was Louis Vuitton what insisted on absurdly-large catamarans for the America’s Cup 2013? Who allowed Louis Vuitton to be in charge of what happens in the 415?
True story: A few years back, a San Francisco Supervisor was telling people that God had San Francisco lose a Summer Olympics venue competition so that the America’s Cup 2013 could slot right in as a replacement. Yes, she thought that (well, anyway, she told people that she thought) Divine Providence was working through Larry Ellison to bring us AC34. I’m seriously.
Well, at least former Mayor Gavin Newsom was made Ambassador at Large or something, that’s kind of like being a real ambassador, I guess. But uh oh, this link doesn’t work anymore:
Oh well.
Who’s to blame for this fiasco?
