Spanish hosts on board for Am-Cup
“El Reto: The Spanish Challenge” became the seventh official team to register for sailing’s 2007 America’s Cup in Valencia, Spain, and will represent the host nation with a budget of about 65 million euros ($87 million), event organizers said yesterday.
The team paid a 1 million euro guarantee four days ago, Marcus Hutchinson, a spokesman for America’s Cup Management, said in an interview. The team, supported by Spain’s national sailing federation, has sponsors including Iberdrola SA, the country’s second-largest power company.
“The team will race under a national flag, rather than that of a yacht club, which is pretty unusual,” Hutchinson said. “The budget is pretty healthy.”
Defending champion Team Alinghi, bankrolled by Swiss biotechnology billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli and sponsors such as Europe’s biggest bank, UBS AG, has pledged to spend 100 million euros.
El Reto, which is Spanish for “the Challenge,” will take part in a series of pre-regattas around Europe over the next two years, before challengers arrive in Valencia and compete for the right to take on defender Alinghi in the June 2007 showpiece.
El Reto first promised to sign up for the event in August but its bid stalled as it sought financial backers, according to Spanish media reports.
Spanish hosts on board for Am-Cup
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