Public-private collaboration

The public-private model of success of the Barcelona America's Cup

In order to host the America's Cup, as with other major sporting events, two essential elements must be ensured: on the one hand, the availability of demanding infrastructures, in this case port infrastructures, and on the other hand, covering the risk of the cost of organizing the event.

Barcelona has been able to formulate a successful bid that responds to these two starting points, and it has done so in a different way from the cities that have preceded it in organizing the America's Cup.

It is practically impossible for a port to have the necessary infrastructure to accommodate the six teams that will participate. Either because this infrastructure does not exist or because, even if it does, other activities are carried out there. For this reason, in many cases the proposal of host cities is to build expensive infrastructures, linked to complex urban transformations that are not always necessary.

Faced with this reality, public administrations are reluctant to give the green light to this risky transformation, especially in a society that increasingly demands a greater cost-benefit analysis of an event of these characteristics.

Barcelona and the Port have done it differently.

At the outset, the Port only had space for one piece of equipment. The other five had to be obtained with the collaboration and complicity between the Port and its private operators. They have made it possible to house four more teams in their own facilities in spaces that, once the America's Cup is over, will be recovered for their usual activity. For the sixth and last base, the process of moving part of the port's commercial activity to the south has had to be accelerated.

The collaboration between the public sector, which leads, plans and manages, and the private sector, with companies taking ownership of the ability to make the event possible, was the key to submitting the initial bid and allowing the location to be very well distributed throughout the length and breadth of the Port Vell.

On the other hand, the designation of Barcelona as the venue has made it necessary to accelerate a series of investments that were pending.

As for the assumption of economic commitments, Barcelona has also been different. Public contributions have been complemented by guarantees from a group of individuals who, with their money, proceeded to financially guarantee the celebration of the event. The vast majority of these people will not obtain any direct benefit, but they felt committed to the general interest.

Communion between administrations, the prudent management of public resources, mainly reflected in the non-execution of new infrastructures, and the sharing of risks and burdens between different sectors, are the elements that define the 37th edition of the America's Cup and mark a model for the future that is much more collaborative and efficient.