Having read and listened to the various accounts of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron AGM on 9 December, Kiwi Home Defence is placing on the record Mark Dunphy’s address to that meeting and his answer to questions put to him at the meeting concerning the availability of funds and revenue for the events. The address is attached, which is followed by his ‘answers to questions’ put to him at the meeting.
“Some of the reports of last week’s meeting bear little relationship to the meeting we attended.” Mark Dunphy stated.
“We didn’t learn anything at the meeting that changed our view that the Cup defence can be held successfully here in Auckland. The confirmation from Team New Zealand that Prada wants to renew sponsorship of the Challenger Selection Series and the America’s Cup for AC37 is a clear signal the Prada money is there to hold the event here in Auckland. For AC 36 this Prada sponsorship was worth Euro 23 million ($37 million).” Mark Dunphy said.
“Grant Dalton keeps repeating that the New Zealand events budget is $50 million short. But he doesn’t include the event income of more than $60 million within that budget; which combined with the generous support of $31 million from the NZ Government takes the events total (at $91 million) comfortably over the $80 million he says he needs. Controversially, Mr Dalton uses the AC 36 TV costs to conflate income from the events with costs. TV costs are forecast at a lesser amount of $30 million for AC 37 when compared with the $37 million of TV costs presented for AC36 ($15 million, or more, assumed to have been met by Prada). TV costs and other savings will add to the events surpluses, estimated by us at $10 million to $20 million, which are also available for team funding.
Mr Dalton says he needs a total of $200 million to keep the cup defence at home, made up of $80 million for the events and $120 million for the team. Mr Dalton says he backs himself to raise $80 million in sponsorship for the team and Kiwi Home Defence has offered a firm $40 million for the team in support of a home defence. So the team has $120 million and access to surpluses from the events of a further $10 million to $20 million.
“If the team needs more funding, Mr Dalton should tell us what the additional funding is for and release the full accounts for the team and events for the America’s Cup defence held earlier in the year. If more funding is required, we are confident New Zealanders will step up to provide that.
“We hope that Grant Dalton and the Commodore have not decided the Cup will be held offshore and are saying anything to justify that. It is for the members of the Squadron and New Zealanders to decide whether that is acceptable.
“For our part we will continue to campaign for the Defence to be held in Auckland. It absolutely can be, and it will be a travesty if it is held offshore” Mark Dunphy concluded.
For information call: Charles Finny 027 544 1547