What If Orange County Is Race Host in ‘91? : Study Sees Big Bucks in America’s Cup

What if?

What if the the Newport Harbor Yacht Club captures the America’s Cup from the defending Australian champion in 1987, making Orange County the host for the prestigious sailing event in 1991?

In a study released Monday, Chapman College’s Center for Economic Research in Orange predicted that such a victory could bring more than $1 billion and 4,380 jobs to Southern California in the next six years and give Orange County a needed boost in attracting tourists.

Sponsored by the Eagle Challenge of Newport Beach, one of five U.S. teams hoping to regain the coveted sailing prize, the $10,000 study forecasts that America’s Cup activities would bring 5.6 million tourists to Orange County in 1990 and 1991 to attend the race and related events.

Swelling Coffers

Moreover, the study says, state and local coffers would swell by an additional $15.5 million from hotel tax, gross sales receipts and the like.

For the past year, members of the nonprofit Eagle Syndicate have been soliciting money from local businesses and individuals to raise $8.5 million needed to move its crew, staff and boats halfway around the world to compete in the races leading up to and including the America’s Cup in 1987. To date, the group has raised about $3.5 million.

“For us to go out to the community and ask for $10,000 contributions, we wanted to show that we could bring something back to it if we did win,” said Gary F. Thomson, president of the Eagle Challenge Syndicate and wrestling commissioner at the 1984 Olympic games.

“The question was, ‘Does it make sense to spend this kind of money to bring it (the Cup) home?’ ” added Thomson. “We say, ‘Yes, it does.’ ”

Eagle officials agree, however, that in order for this economic boom to be launched in Southern California, a great deal must be accomplished.

First, the Eagle Challenge, with Olympic gold medal winner Rod Davis at the helm, would have to win a series of races against other American and European teams. Those eliminations, which will go from October, 1986, to the following January, will determine who meets the Australian defender in the “super bowl” of sailing on Jan. 31, 1987.

Eagle officials are hoping that interest in the America’s Cup competition will be keen, given the fact that the United States will be trying to win back the title it held for 132 years. The Australians won the Cup in 1983 from the New York Yacht Club, which has hosted the race in Newport, R.I., for the last several decades.

“It’s important to understand that this is not an event that occurs for two weeks, but over four years,” said James Doti, the director of the study and the Center for Economic Research at Chapman College.

Economic Boon

Based on projections of increased economic activity in Orange and Los Angeles counties should the Eagle win in Australia in 1987, the study predicts that the 1991 America’s Cup racing series, and the World Cup races held the prior year, would begin to boost economic activity as early as 1987, when the first teams would arrive to begin training in Southern California waters.

Each syndicate, for example, is expected to spend about $25,000 a month mooring its boat and maintaining the craft during the period that it would be in Southern California. Members of upwards of 24 teams and the accompanying tourists would spend millions of dollars more on hotels, restaurants and other travel services.

And if Newport Harbor Yacht Club, which is sponsoring the Eagle Challenge, wins in 1987, the race would stay in Orange County until a foreign country took it away again.

This, says Doti, could revitalize Orange County as a major tourist area. In a separate study which examined tourist indicators in Orange County, Doti said that the county has experienced “lackluster growth” from 1978 to the present.

Given the long sail ahead, Thomson is still confident of the Eagle’s chances. Asked whether the Eagle Challenge could bring the Cup back to the United States as well as the bacon to Orange County, Thomson said, “Ifs don’t bother me.”