Team NZ backs Auckland as host

Team New Zealand admit ‘‘there’s a lot of work to do’’ but they are confident they will defend the America’s Cup in Auckland.

The Cup holders released the protocol on September 29 and set alarm bells ringing with an unexpected announcement that the regatta could sail off to Italy if Auckland City bosses and the government couldn’t sort out the infrastructure required to hold the event in 2021.

They have set a deadline of August 31 next year or they will take the radical step of defending the Cup offshore.

Russell Green, the Team New Zealand rules expert who helped draw up the protocol, moved to ease those concerns yesterday when he fronted a live chat on American website Sailing Illustrated, to discuss the ramifications of the key document.

He described the move to have a substitute hosting option as ‘‘a prudent clause’’ but remained confident the Cup would be defended here.

‘‘There’s a lot of work to be done by Auckland,’’ Green said.

‘‘But I’m sure it will come together. There will be a host city agreement before August next year and hopefully a long way before [that] so we can tell the world to come to Auckland,’’ he predicted.

‘‘We want it in New Zealand. We won it, we brought it back here and we want to defend it here.’’

Green said ‘‘realistically there is nowhere else in New Zealand to host it’’, so they had opted for Italy as an alternative, a move that aligns with challenger of record Luna Rossa who represent the Circolo Della Vela Sicilia yacht club in Sicily.

Auckland faces the complex and expensive scenario of fitting the required 30,000 square metres of land to accommodate up to 10 America’s Cup bases into an already crowded waterfront.

Green made it clear Team New Zealand didn’t want the syndicate bases fragmented, preferring to create the central atmosphere the event deserved.

He suggested the situation had got more complicated than the last times Team New Zealand defended the Cup in Auckland in 2000 and 2003 because of the formation of the Super City and the political differences that brought.

Auckland mayor Phil Goff admits he is struggling to find the money required to put the infrastructure in place. The tricky equation hasn’t been helped by the current uncertainty over the next government.