San Diego Sees Its Cup Running Over After Victory

With pride in their hearts and dollar signs in their eyes, San Diego business and civic leaders Wednesday cheered the recapture of the America’s Cup yachting prize and huddled late into the day to plan a public celebration to welcome home Stars & Stripes skipper Dennis Conner and his crew.

Conner is scheduled to return home to a triumphant San Diego welcome sometime between noon and 6 p.m. Saturday, Mayor Maureen O’Connor said. Conner’s decision to bring the cup to San Diego, before heading on to celebrations in New York and at the White House, “says a lot about San Diegans’ commitment to San Diego,” the mayor added.

Conner’s overwhelming victory over the Australian entry--a stroke of personal revenge for Conner, since he lost the yachting prize to the Aussies three years ago--will also serve to focus worldwide attention on California’s second-largest city, opening the gates for an economic boom, San Diego boosters predicted Wednesday.

Noting that this seaside city of 1 million people will also host the Super Bowl in 1988, Max Schetter, senior vice president of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, said: “We’ve gone from the community whose presence has often been a secret to the rest of the nation and certainly to the rest of the world, to one whose image and stature is becoming well-known. . . . It can result in jobs, new business, trade.”

Schetter said members of a downtown marketing consortium--which includes the Chamber, the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the U.S. Navy--were meeting late Wednesday to discuss a celebration for Conner. The group has decided on a boat parade through San Diego Harbor for the local skipper and his crew, with other festivities still to be decided.

San Diego’s share of notoriety was guaranteed when Conner, a San Diego resident, defeated New Zealand in the semifinals for the right to face Australia’s yachting best, Kookaburra III. Then, Conner beat the Aussies, 4 to 0.

The Sail America syndicate, which is responsible for raising the $15 million to pay for Conner’s shot at the cup, is composed of prominent hometown businessmen such as real estate and banking executive Malin Burnham. And Conner sailed under the flag of the San Diego Yacht Club, of which he and Burnham are members.

Race for Next Competition

Thus, the cup now becomes property of the San Diego Yacht Club, and the group will be a strong influence on where the next competition for the America’s Cup will be held. Localities such as Hawaii; Newport, R.I., and Santa Monica have been mentioned as possible sites, but San Diego civic leaders say they will make a run at being host to the lucrative competition.

“We think it’s going to mean hundreds of millions and possibly billions of dollars in the community in a trickle-down effect,” said Louis Wolfsheimer, a San Diego Unified Port District commissioner.

San Diego’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism, which is the city’s third-leading source of income behind manufacturing and the Navy. In 1986, Schetter said, tourists spent $2.4 billion at local hotels, restaurants, and shops.

Cup on Tour

The San Diego club will be putting the America’s Cup on tour, sending it for display to other American yacht clubs that participated in the recent competition. Club officials also say they want to arrange for public viewing of the trophy, although how that will be done hasn’t been decided.

Meanwhile Wednesday, the national spotlight yielded immediate benefits for San Diego and its officials. The Entertainment and Sports Network carried a live feed from the San Diego Yacht Club, where a victory party showed a rowdy crowd cheering early in the morning.

Champagne flowed and a brass band played. The air was filled with victorious whoops as the city’s No. 1 sailor concluded his business in Australia.

A crowd estimated at 700 to 900 taxed the confines of the yacht club, which overlooks the harbor, and a clutter of 100 reporters, radio and TV personnel crushed into the scene, chasing after such notables as San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor and singer John Denver.

In Washington, Sen. Pete Wilson marked the yachting victory with a Senate resolution lauding Conner. The former San Diego mayor also referred to his hometown as “sailing’s newest capital.”

And in Sacramento, the yachting victory drew praise from Gov. George Deukmejian, who pledged the government’s non-monetary help in making sure the next cup race was in San Diego.

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