An America’s Cup challenger from China?
Update, 1 February 2017 Well! That was a false alarm. Not surprising though. ACEA has over-promised in the past – about the number of challengers and the countries they would come from – most recently in announcing the “Framework Agreement” among five of the six current teams. Let’s see if we get a China-flagged challenger for the 2019 America’s Cup.
Original post, 10 June 2015
Reasons to believe America’s Cup officials will soon announce a Chinese challenger:
- Title sponsor Louis Vuitton gets about a third of their revenue from Chinese shoppers.
- Chinese TV network CCTV has agreed to pay rights fees to broadcast, free to air, America’s Cup racing to their 400 million households.
- Softbank, title sponsor of the Japanese challenger, owns 32% of the stock of Alibaba, the major Chinese internet company.
- America’s Cup officials have stated that they expect another challenger from Asia.
This all seems to point to having a Chinese challenger. Stand by for updates!