The America Cup

[Lou Barron]

Now that the Americans have still got the cup maybe things might settle down in NZ it was a remarkable turn around but how many Americans was in their boat it was mostly Aussies,Brits and a couple of Kiwis .Any i have always said its a rich mans sport ...The NZ tax payer was the ones who kept the NZ boat in the water

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Lou.
The Americas cup is a millionaires sport paid for as you say by the tax payer, The Olympics is going the same way rapidly. Not many sports these days that don't have taxpayer import, take cricket here in Aus millions from taxpayers to their sports academy, then when they play get many more millions for doing so.
Cheers Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Des, define sport if you can.
There is no such thing in today's society. What we have is big business with sportsmen just employees in the business.

[robpage]

In the days long ago when Rugby Union was an amateur game , many of the best players went to play league for a wage , then money and professionalism came in , that I believe changed the top levels of the game , American sports graduates on scholarships , TV rights , billions of pounds in investment . The Olympic Games with full time athletes , all these things leading money back to the sponsors have improved performance and thrown away sportsmanship replacing it with cash . Sad but Formula 1 has become the model for a lot of sports now

[John Arton]

Could not agree more with the comments above. Sky has made football almost unwatchable for the average guy after they have poured so much money into the premier league with the resultant ridiculous wages being paid to so called superstars. Only at the local amateur level is football worth watching.
On the beeb, Ben Ainsley, who is credited with turning around the USA's fortunes was saying that now there has been such media coverage of the race perhaps sponsers in the U.K. will come forward with the moolah to enable a British entry to compete on the same level, i.e. loads of money.
Bet Sir Thomas Lipton is turning in his grave at seeing how his original idea's for the race has been hijacked by mega bucks and corporate sponsorship. The original yachts were all built and owned using their own money and crewed by themselves.
rgds
JA

[robpage]

As an Apprentice at South Shields we used to watch Newcastle and Sunderland , at the wonderful Roker Park Ground , on alternate weeks , my memory tells me that admission was less than 5/- or 25p in new money , I was on around £20 a month so 1/20th of my monthly income to watch football once a week was not that bad , now I believe Tottenham hotspur adult admission varies from £37 to £81 a match in the current season so I would need to be earning £ 40,000 a year to be comparable with then . and the grounds are less capacity , so the admission does not seem too bad , but the game I think like all sports has become a technically managed affair with honed athletes prone to injury . when you look at the America's Cup and the money spent , it becomes a victory for teh sponsor with the most money to throw in , all tax deductable I expect too .

[John Arton]

Rob
Roker Park-I'm going off thread but heyho
Standing in the open end with the wind howling in from the North Sea watching Sunderland actually winning games in the 70's, great.
Best thing I ever saw was Eric Gates knock the ball out of the goalies hands as the goalie was bouncing the ball before kicking up the pitch and tap it into the goal. Legitimate goal we all roared, disallowed by the ref!!!!!!!! the bersterd.
Wifeys brother could recall the days when there would be 60,000 packed into Roker Park. Half time pies and Bovril, what more could you ask for.
Have been to the Stadium of Light a couple of times, you can get in for £25, atmosphere is great but the quality of play can be dismal as is the quality of the pies.
rgds
JA

[David Williams]

Hi Charles.
I have never been keen on yacht racing,but after watching
this series of the Americas Cup,I am hooked,and cant wait
for the next race of these tremendous boats.
Dave Williams

[j.sabourn]

Looking at film footage of these vessels, looks like they have sufficient numbers on board to man at least 2 supertankers each. John Sabourn

[Tony Wilding]

Honestly do not know how they won, so many bad earlier attempts, accused of numerous malpractices also, illegal modifications, a strange outcome. i second its no longer sport, someone is getting rich, i doubt if the crew are. the richest bankroll wins, Sport ?, Never, ! . Football players have become overpaid drunks, F1 Is almost a forgone conclusion who will win, olympics is full of Professional Athletes, only true Sportsmen and women play just for the sportmanship and enjoyment. its all big business. like everything in this world now, leads to corruption and game fixing, SKY TV makes Billions every year from Football. ,