Oracle Team USA Owner Larry Ellison has set rules for this year's America's Cup that call for "smaller, cheaper boats with fewer opportunities to exploit technological and financial advantages" in an attempt to make the competition a "legitimate and appealing modern sporting event," according to Matthew Futterman of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Ellison and his outfit have "allowed teams to set up partnerships to share costs," while also including "other teams and a television producer in the creation of the rules." The result is an America’s Cup, which begins Friday in Bermuda, "unlike any before." Organizers said that the changes were "essential to make the America’s Cup competitive." Crew sizes were "cut from 11 to six to save payroll." Team Oracle captain Jimmy Spithill said that a team "could now stage a legitimate America’s Cup campaign" for about $40M, a "far cry from the nine-figure budgets that often dominate." Still, several teams are spending more than $100M. Critics have said that the event, which was held in S.F. Bay in '13, "should have stayed on the American mainland to expand its profile." But for fans "watching on television or lucky enough" to attend, the race will be "fairly easy to follow." Gone are races that "lasted hours," as those will now "last about 22 minutes." All this "makes the job" of America’s Cup TV executive producer Denis Harvey "far easier." Harvey has been working with Ellison and former Oracle Team USA CEO Russell Coutts to "create a watchable competition" Around 5,000 fans will "watch from the shore each day, with thousands more expected on the roughly 1,500 boats that have applied for permits to line the boundaries of the course." Another 845 "will watch from aboard a spectator yacht" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 5/24).
