Only five teams will likely compete in the '13 America's Cup, and critics are claiming that this is the "latest sign that the event's economic impact will be substantially less than projections," according to a front-page piece by Neal Riley of the S.F. CHRONICLE. The city of S.F. in '10 "predicted that hosting the competition would generate" $1.4B in revenue, 9,000 jobs and 15 sailing teams. But Beacon Economics Founding Partner Christopher Thornberg, whose firm partnered with the city to release a '10 economic impact report on the races, said, "It's going to be a hell of a lot smaller." The low number of entrants "doesn't come as a surprise to city officials or organizers." S.F. Mayor Ed Lee in April said that he expected "only five or six teams after a French sailing team dropped out, citing the difficult economic climate." City officials and race organizers in March "backed off plans" for a $111M waterfront revitalization. However, they are standing by their "assessment that the race would bring in" more than $1B. America's Cup CEO Stephan Barclay: "Every single America's Cup since 1995, they've all exceeded that number, and I see no reason why San Francisco won't be the same. There is no difference at all to the size, the scope and scale of what we were contemplating" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 8/3).
