Restoring credibility is the cup's biggest challenge

OPINION: What a circus the America's Cup has turned into.

After two years of legal clap-trap and billionaires' bulls..., the 33rd battle for the Auld Mug was over in a flash. The Swiss holders rocked up with their futuristic 27m catamaran but, as the cup's resident loudmouth Dennis Conner would no doubt have declared had he been in with BMW Oracle, "they turned up in a cat, we brought our dog, and a big, fast dog at that".

Larry Ellison's space-age trimaran, USA 17, with its radical 68-metre-tall wing sail, was way too quick for its rival in the Deed of Gift Match, the contest between the monster multis desperately one-sided.

So where to from here, especially for Emirates Team New Zealand, who have been rapidly chewing through millions of dollars of government funding while waiting for this piddling contest between the big boys to be decided?

Indications are that Ellison will want to sail the next cup series in his backyard, probably San Francisco. It is unknown whether he is keen to get a multi-challenger series up and running quickly. Suggestions are afloat that 2013 may be the preferred option to avoid a clash with the 2012 London Olympics.

Mono or multi? Hired gun Russell Coutts, a three-time cup winner, has thrown his considerable weight behind a return to monohull racing for the next regatta, although the Alinghi camp seem to favour the multis – rather strange given their inability to stay close to the United States challenger off Valencia.

Coutts and Ellison claim they are both keen to "reach consensus with the rest of the America's Cup world" after the bitter infighting between the Alinghi and Oracle bosses, vowing to make the 34th version of the America's Cup the "most popular ever".

Some progress has been made. A challenger of record has been named. The Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, owned by colourful Italian billionaire Vincenzo Onorato, will negotiate on behalf of the challengers for the next cup.

While unable to confirm the venue and date of the next multi-challenger event, Ellison promises it will be free of infighting and litigation, saying "... one thing I'd like to assure everybody about the 34th America's Cup is that there will be a completely independent jury, there will be completely independent umpires, it will be an independent group that manages the next America's Cup. It will be a level playing field for all competitors." Yeah, right.

The biggest challenge facing the various cup rivals, especially in this country, is bringing credibility back to the event and reigniting the huge national support which has been eroded since the halcyon days of 1995 and 2000. Given the bizarre behaviour and shenanigans of recent times, it won't be easy.

Isn't it ironic that rugby's answer to creating a better spectacle is to finally allow the ball carriers to exercise rights which have, to my mind, been incorrectly denied them for a number of seasons.

After watching referees err strongly on the side of the defensive players, thus misinterpreting the laws which suggest a tackled player must be allowed to immediately place or pass the ball, it will be refreshing to see the attacking team given a fair chance of retaining possession. I'm not suggesting a return to the Brumbies-style game, which involved interminable phases with defensive sides having little or no chance of turnovers. There must also still be scope for sides who arrive at the breakdown more quickly, and in bigger numbers, to scavenge for the ball. But, if teams are able to take the ball into contact with a better-than-even chance of retaining it, the era of long-winded kicking duels and reliance on counterattack may, thankfully, be over.

- The Marlborough Express

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