Audi Med Cup In Trouble . UK Telegraph.
5:59PM GMT 07 Dec 2011
World Sports Management announced that the prestigious MedCup, which has grown into the premier yacht racing circuit for monohulls in the world since it was launched in 2005, would be suspended in 2012 due to the severe effects of the global economic meltdown.
They cited insufficient entries and a lack of financial resources among the local authorities in Spain, Portugal, Italy and France who host the events as the factors that created difficulties in their contractual negotiations with German automotive firm Audi who have been sponsors since 2008.
"Together with the abovementioned factors, a decrease in the support needed from Audi AG, which has been the circuitﾒs title sponsor, has led WSM to terminate, early and peacefully, the sponsorship deal linking both companies," WSM said in a statement.
The announcement came as little surprise to owners and competitors who were aware of the tensions between sponsors and organisers. Other factors also contributed to the strains including demands from Audi to expand the programme from the Mediterranean to the Baltic to focus more on their home market.
The conflicting needs of owners who campaign their boats privately such as Britain's Niklas Zennstrom's Ran and those of corporate sponsors like the 2011 winners Quantum also created problems for both organisers and sponsors since private owners want only to go racing and have little interest in complying with sponsor's media and corporate demands.
Zennstrom, the founder of Skype who joined the circuit with a brand new TP52 in 2011 said he was saddened by the news.
"The MedCup race format and management under WSM has been second to none so it's sad to see that Audi as a title sponsor and WSM have not been able to come to an agreement," he said.
"Also Audi has been such a committed sponsor. However, the owners are getting together ASAP to work out what the right racing format should be for next year."
Zennstrom added he was hopeful the owners would be able to agree a scaled down version of the TP52 programme for 2012 with one stand alone event each month hosted by a yacht club.
"I am pretty confident the class will be racing next year in one form or another," he said.
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