With the prospect of bringing $72 million in new spending to the Ocean State, the America’s Cup World Series regatta coming to Newport next summer promises to be one of the most significant in Rhode Island’s recent history.
Organizers and marketers in Providence and Newport are preparing for what one says will be a “vibrant, colorful, high-energy” nine-day event, June 23 to July 1, with the potential to bring a total of 90,000 spectators to the region. But the effects of the races will be longer-lasting than the races. The state will need to make improvements to Fort Adams State Park, investments that officials believe are one of the top “five or six” economic development initiatives it is undertaking, according to R.I. Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Keith W. Stokes. The Fort Adams improvements alone, Stokes said, will prime the park to become the “world-class sailing event center” that officials long have hoped for. The World Series race next year is but a beginning, he has said, with “a positive economic ripple effect” that will draw more boating events in the years to come.
“It is good to see the excitement in Rhode Island about it,” said Paul Harden, newly named executive director of America’s Cup Rhode Island. “You can’t go to Newport and not talk to someone about it. It really energizes people.”
Still, Newport has no special hold on the America’s Cup, Stokes warned, even though final races were held there for 53 years, from 1930 to 1983, and even though Narragansett Bay boasts some of the best sailing winds in the country.
Hosting Cup races “has become very competitive” in recent years, he said, with sailing ports up and down the East Coast investing in infrastructure improvements intended to accommodate such events. It is a situation that underscores the importance of next year’s races and how crucial it is that the races go off without a hitch.
To that end, Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee this month is scheduled to announce formation of an America’s Cup planning committee to oversee all aspects of the event, Stokes said. It will include private- and public-sector leaders, as well as representatives of Newport and Jamestown, the U.S. Coast Guard and the marine trades. Two members of the America’s Cup staff will be based in Rhode Island from November to July, Harden said.
Harden, named America’s Cup Rhode Island director in September, has a budget of $1.3 million in state funds, largely for Fort Adams improvements. Work will be done to expand utility services and add floating docks at the fort, Harden said.
He also is working with the Coast Guard, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management and the harbormaster on the logistics of coordinating the races in the water, including designating space for what are expected to be a large number of spectator boats.
Among the spectator boats, Stokes said, will be super-yachts that travel the world to follow Cup matches. (Any yacht longer than 80 feet is considered a super- or mega-yacht.) “People will come just to see these yachts,” Stokes said.
The tricky question of parking cars in Newport at the height of the summer tourist season will be resolved by off-site vehicle parking throughout Aquidneck Island and the use of both ground and water shuttles, according to Harden and Stokes.
Evan Smith, president of the Newport Bristol County Convention & Visitors Bureau, explained that the role of his bureau is to help market the event.
Based on what he saw in England, Smith said each syndicate will come with a tent to set up at Fort Adams where boats will be housed when not racing. Also, a tent village will be installed at Fort Adams to include a headquarters and “full entertainment complex” for visitors, said Smith, who expects a “vibrant, colorful, high-energy” event.
Media coverage promises to be extensive. Each racing vessel is equipped with five cameras that will send video-feeds to the racing villages, Harden said, while three helicopters will feed aerial views. Talks are in the works for television coverage, according to Harden, and such coverage is expected to be global.
“The America’s Cup has always been about innovation, and the new America’s Cup World Series gives us the opportunity to bring the highest levels of our sport to more people around the globe,” said Tom Huston of the America’s Cup Event Authority in a recent news release about television coverage. “From our LiveLine graphics and onboard cameras to seeing the athletes in action as well as the boats themselves, this next-generation America’s Cup is transforming the way people experience sailing.”
Other World Series races in 2012 are scheduled in Naples, Italy, April 7-15, and Venice, Italy, May 12-20. More races will be held in 2013, culminating in the America’s Cup finals in San Francisco Bay Sept. 7-22, 2013.
The $72 million economic-impact figure was arrived at by the R.I. Department of Revenue, based on an estimate of direct spending of $51 million and indirect spending of $21 million. The study expects that 400 jobs would be created as part of the run-up to the event as well as during the races. •
