Team New Zealand losing local support

When the USA defender moved the America’s Cup from San Francisco to Bermuda after their 2013 defense, there was heartache from the locals, but they also knew it was never their event. Billionaire Larry Ellison owned the team, funded the team’s club, and had twisted the City for event support.

But the situation is different in New Zealand, and the Māori Party has hit out at Team New Zealand’s plans to take the America’s Cup overseas, accusing the Grant Dalton-led syndicate of selling “their souls to the highest bidder”.

“When the Americas Cup gets distilled to how much money rather than how much mana, we have truly lost our way,” Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi said in a statement titled ‘the rort that is the America’s Cup’.

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