Longtime America's Cup Challenger Series title sponsor Louis Vuitton "has signed an agreement to expand its role in the next Cup in Bermuda" in '17, according to Christopher Clarey of the N.Y. TIMES. The move "is a significant boost for the venerable event, which has lost commercial and sporting momentum in recent months because of challenger withdrawals and hotly disputed rule and design changes." During the '13 America’s Cup in S.F., the series of races sponsored by Louis Vuitton to determine the challenger "was woefully short on competitors and interest." Louis Vuitton Chair & CEO Michael Burke, whose company has sponsored the event since '83, on Tuesday said, "We had told them that they would need to come back to us with a compelling story this time and a compelling proposal so we didn’t have to face those issues again." The '13 America’s Cup match between Team New Zealand and Oracle "was perhaps the most riveting in the history of the event," as Oracle "rallied from a 1-8 deficit with eight straight victories to retain the trophy 9-8." Burke: "The final kind of made up for all of it. ... That kind of repaired some of the frayed feelings with the public, and that gave the organizers a chance to come back with what was good about it." Team New Zealand, Ben Ainslie Racing and Team France "are all still in need of major sponsorship, but Louis Vuitton’s decision clearly helps the event’s stability" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/28).
