By Peter Schrag
If a thing is worth what somebody is willing to pay for it, then judging from recent events winning the America’s Cup is worth three or four times what becoming governor of California is worth.
The actual trophy, a 26-inch piece of silver-plated metal that looks a little like a duck, cost £105 when it was first made in London in 1848. But what is it really worth? To win it last week, Silicon Valley billionaire Larry Ellison, said to be the world’s fourth richest man, spent close to $400 million for his high-tech trimaran; the law suits to get the race rules jiggered to accommodate that technology and the crew expenses and training.
The Cup will soon sit in a specially built space at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Yacht Club, itself an upstart next to the more prestigious, long-established Saint Francis Yacht Club next door on San Francisco Bay. But first Ellison is taking it on a “victory lap” around the country. How’s that for class?
But don’t knock it. If Ellison decides to hold the next round of cup challenges on the Bay and if the Deed of Gift, the lawyers, the courts, the city and the Coast Guard allow it, local boosters estimate it could mean as much as $9 billion in tourist dollars and other revenue. These days that’s real money. .
Meantime, Ellison’s fellow Silicon Valleynaire Meg Whitman, who made her billion-plus even more recently, is said to be willing to spend as much as $150 million of that