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BMW Oracle - Source: Photosport -
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Legal wrangling over the America's Cup has been a disaster for the event and BMW are unlikely to continue their partnership with Oracle Corp if the feuding continues, the German carmaker said on Friday.
Ralf Hussmann, BMW sports marketing general manager, said it was "completely open" whether the firm would partner Oracle again after legal battles over rules and hosting rights delayed and then altered the format of the 33rd America's Cup off the Spanish port city of Valencia.
"After the disaster of this Cup we will very carefully look at how stable the conditions will be and then we will make a decision," Hussmann told Reuters in an interview.
"We would like to see a Cup similar to the one in 2007 next time," he said. "That would at least give us a stable platform to decide. If it's not happening I don't see us continuing."
Two-and-a-half years of legal battles left the 33rd America's Cup without a challengers series, with Swiss holders Alinghi instead sailing against BMW Oracle in a best-of-three duel.
The lack of a challengers series and shortened format makes the event less attractive to potential sponsors and broadcasters.
"There must be decent coverage, people must be interested to watch it, the Cup must be professionally organised and then it's an interesting platform," Hussmann said.
BMW first teamed up with Oracle in 2002. Hussmann said they were delighted with the format at the 2007 event, when Alinghi successfully defended the Cup after 11 challengers fought out a preliminary regatta with widespread media and public interest.
However, the scaled-down version in Valencia this time has turned off some sponsors, media and spectators. The first race is due to begin on Friday after two weather-related postponements.
Can't take much more
Hussmann said BMW had thought long and hard about whether to take part in the latest edition.
"Even though we were not happy with these court battles we thought it was necessary to rescue the Cup for the future," he said. "So we said we don't support the team in all the court actions because they are nothing to do with us and it was a decision the BMW Oracle Racing team made themselves.
The event could not take much more, Hussmann said.
"The America's Cup will survive once in a while such a development but it must be over after one period of struggling," he said. "If that continues, it's over."
BMW had agreed to continue the partnership with Oracle after the 2007 Cup but left a lot of details open until the conditions for the next event had been decided finally, Hussmann said.
"When all the lawsuits started and it became clear it was just a Cup between the two teams we were able to fine-tune our contract accordingly, which also resulted in very moderate investments because we knew with this development that the Cup would suffer," he said.
"The visibility of the Cup and the media exposure would suffer. And we simply reflected this in our commitments. Because in the end it's a sports marketing exercise and it must produce its returns for the brand and that determines the investment."
