Statement from BMW Oracle
STATEMENT OF TOM EHMAN
Spokesman, Golden Gate Yacht Club
12 November 2008
[Source: BMW Oracle] It’s unfortunate that we – and Mascalzone Latino – were excluded from the meeting hosted by Alinghi in Geneva yesterday to discuss proposed rules for AC33, but we are heartened by some positive things that came out of the meeting.
For example, we applaud their decision to have the America’s Cup Race Officials, the Technical Director and Umpires be selected from ISAF officials. This is an excellent step in the right direction.
But a major sticking point remains the arbitration panel. Adding two members simply gives Alinghi a 3-2 advantage rather than their previous 2-1 advantage.
Standard operating procedure for selecting an arbitration panel is to have the Challengers pick two members, the Defender pick two, and those four individuals agree on a fifth member. That would be fair.
In addition, other fundamental fairness issues remain to be addressed, including the fact that the Defender, through ACM (the management company controlled by Ernesto Bertarelli), can change any of the rules at any time and can impose any new rule or restriction on the competitors.
Our position on AC33 remains clear: we will drop our lawsuit if Alinghi adopts fair and competitive rules.
Labels: 33rd America's Cup
8 Comments:
Come on Tom... You are just sounding silly now. Drop the law suit and go to the meetings to make your argument.
I dont think Mascalzone were excluded. To say excluded would imply that they were not given the chance to join. They were given that chance but refused to sign a perfectly reasonable confidentiality agreement so were not permitted to sit in the meeting. What are you talking about????
Petty. Pathetic. You obviously want to be at those meetings. Just drop the case and enter. Don't worry about how your PR is perceived - you sound like your creating an exit strategy, we all know that. Don't worry about it, it'll be forgotten in no time. Don't waste time. Drop it and enter.
Why are meetings secret?
tom - time to just get on with it. you're killing the sport
I would guess the meeting was confidential due to the fact that it was a design meeting. Look at all the team designers sitting around the table (alinghi.com) and its chaired by Tom Schnaks.
One of the unique features of the America's cup is that the defender organizes the event.
It is therefore normal that the defender has some advantages and is not 100% equal to the challengers.
This is part of the beauty of the America's cup: to win a challenger must really be much better than the defender.
Alinghi must find the delicate balance between having some advantages and making it impossible for anyboy else to win. If the challengers would feel that the roules make it impossible to win, they will not enter teh competition and this would also be bad for Alinghi.
The financial advantage comes form devending the cup in an interesting competition, not keeping it on display at CNG.
If all entered teams have a designer present (Cutler??) why would the design meeting be secret? They afraid Bavaria or Swan will steal ideas? Nonsense. The designers would be keeping secrets from other teams. The NDA was an instrument to elicit the response it did. Would those commenting please identify themselves! Otherwise I will assume they are Marian Martin or the rest of the SNG PR team.
Post a Comment
<< Home