NORTH SMITHFIELD – An America’s Cup race official insisted Monday that organizers aren’t using renewed talks with Rhode Island to force San Francisco to sweeten its bid for the 2013 event.
Tom Ehman, a member of the America’s Cup committee and the Golden Gate Yacht Club board, told the R.I. Economic Development Corporation board Monday that race organizers have been impressed by the state’s application, including plans to use Fort Adams State Park as a hub for race activities.
But Ehman – also an official with the 2010 America’s Cup winner BMW Oracle Racing – was looking for assurances that improvements around the historic fort that overlooks the East Passage of Narragansett Bay and Newport Harbor could be completed by 2013.
Race organizers have said they need to announce the race site by Dec. 31.
Preliminary cost estimates for work needed along the waterfront outside the state-owned fort – including installing docks – are $10 million, according to Keith W. Stokes, EDC executive director. He added that the cost for other improvements around the fort is unclear.
Also uncertain is how the state will finance the work. Stokes said EDC officials are looking into obtaining federal assistance or bond issues.
Renovation work at the fort has already been under way and more had been on the drawing board even before talks with America’s Cup organizers. In fact, voters approved a $1.5 million bond issue for renovations at Fort Adams in November.
The EDC already has hired a design and engineering team that includes the Louis Berger Group, Newport Collaborative Architects Inc. and Gates, Leighton & Associates to develop plans and cost estimates for the America’s Cup work.
Ehman acknowledged that negotiations with San Francisco leaders “have not gone as well as we [had] hoped,” leading organizers to reexamine sites that were initially in the running, including Newport.
The EDC had submitted an application for pre-regatta events leading up to the final races in 2013 that organizers found “impressive,” said Ehman. “Maybe it’s better than San Francisco’s.”
He said the race officials were asking whether the state could complete the waterfront improvements at the fort by 2012 so the BMW Oracle could run two regattas that year as a “dress rehearsal.”
The hope was that the remainder of the improvements at the fort could be completed by Jan. 1, 2013.
Ehman said he wasn’t looking for a “hard and fast contract” right now but a commitment that state officials would put forth their “best efforts.”
Several America’s Cup officials have visited the state in the last week, meeting with state leaders about the application. Sailing’s most prestigious race was last contested in Newport in 1983, when the New York Yacht Club lost the Cup to an Australian syndicate, ending a streak of victories dating back to 1851.
Ehman, a former Rhode Island resident, said organizers like the idea of the race coming back to Newport and were impressed in visits this week that the Cup remained part of the city’s identity, such as Newport’s main thoroughfare being called America’s Cup Avenue.
As part of his pitch, Ehman said the event has changed in the nearly 30 years since it was last here, calling it “one of the top sports events in terms of economic impact” because there are activities taking place in the years leading to the final races and the number of corporate sponsorships.
“This is not your father’s or grandfather’s America’s Cup,” he said. “This is no longer going to fill the hotels in Newport,” he said. “This is going to fill the hotels in the entire state.”
A study conducted to gauge the economic impact of holding the races in San Francisco said the event would bring in about $1.4 billion and create 8,800 jobs, the EDC said.
Another change in the America’s Cup race from when it was last in Newport: instead of racing offshore, organizers say new boat designs may allow for the races to take place in the East Passage, well within sight of people onshore in Newport and Jamestown.
It would be nice to compete in the world economically but when we make our state more attractive to non producers wile we chase away the producers it makes us look ridiculous to the world. Some state! We came a long way from not even showing up to the constitutional convention to remain sovereign from a federal government to now where this state is more dependent on the federal government than all the rest. Good god man look around! It would be nice to have the cup here but we don’t deserve it. This place needs to be cleaned up. We need industry here, people with jobs, people who care about the financial health of a community not people who just want to tax and demonize the producers! Yes, that’s you the liberal progressive democrats. If you think its you then pay attention. These liberals are not JFK. He was a conservative democrat who would know what I’m talking about. It might be too late for this race but good grief lets get it together man!
William, what producers are you talking about? I haven’t met one single RI born producer of anything (except stupdity and negativity) since moving here. Sorry. You need to get a better arguement. One that conforms to the sorry state of the local population here (including yourself, I’ve read your post before). By the way, I’m a very proud producing liberal Democrat who can look you in the eye and call you a liar. Education is a good thing. Try it, yo