Candidates to Be Named Next Saturday : Cup Committee Selection Getting Closer

Next Saturday, the process of deciding where to defend the America’s Cup will move an important step forward when the syndicate that sponsored Dennis Conner and his Stars & Stripes recommends who should serve on the committee that will ultimately pick a race location.

Sail America syndicate president Malin Burnham says he and other syndicate officials have culled a list of about 50 people down to the few who will be recommended to the San Diego Yacht Club next Saturday. The board of directors of the club has final approval over who is chosen for the site selection committee.

While Burnham, in a telephone interview Thursday, declined to name the nominees, he said “no one at the yacht club will be surprised” by the recommendations.

The reason for that, he said, is that the club has been kept informed--at least on an informal basis--of who is being considered. The committee will have 7 to 11 members, a majority of whom must belong to the yacht club. The exact number of committee members will be worked out with the club, Burnham said.

Looking for Expertise

Burnham said Sail America officials were looking for people with specific expertise to serve on the committee.

“We wanted, for example, someone who would be a good resource for TV, someone who is competent in running marketing efforts . . . someone with expertise in government relations,” Burnham said. “But in all this, we wanted people with a reasonable amount of knowledge of the America’s Cup. We didn’t want someone from Chicago who’s a good media person but doesn’t know much about the Cup.”

The extensive time commitment required to serve on the committee--particularly in the early months--was too much for some candidates. Burnham said he is satisfied with the quality of people under consideration, though he noted facetiously, “It would be nice to have a lot of Peter Ueberroths around, but that’s not going to happen.” Ueberroth is commissioner of major league baseball.

Once the recommendations are made to the yacht club, both Burnham and yacht club Commodore Fred Frye say they expect final approval to occur quickly, probably within 24 to 48 hours.

Race Location

The committee’s paramount task will be to pick the place for the next Cup race, a decision eagerly awaited throughout the world’s sailing community. San Diego is considered the front-runner, though other communities, such as Hawaii and Newport, R.I., are also vying for the races in what is shaping up to be a high-stakes competition.

The community selected as host is expected to reap a financial and public-relations bonanza worth hundreds of millions of dollars, if the experience of Fremantle, where the Cup races were most recently held, is any guide. It’s been estimated that it will take the committee six months to pick a location, as it weighs numerous factors such as community support, wind and race conditions, and race support facilities.

The committee also will determine the kind of yachts that will be used in the competition, the configuration of the race course, the year and season in which the races will occur, as well as the racing juries and the multitude of other arrangements involved in putting on sailing’s top event.

There’s also the likelihood that the committee may hire consultants to help it in specific areas. For example, Burnham said a Boston-based marketing company is drafting criteria to help select a consultant who will try to analyze the heightened status of the America’s Cup and what that means to the next race.

“We’re trying to get some idea of what this means now around the world,” Burnham said. Once the consultant’s work is finished, probably in about 60 days, the information will be given to the site selection committee.

After the committee finishes its work, Burnham said, an executive director and staff will be hired to carry out the plans and embark on such crucial items as negotiating a television contract.

Burnham, who has been as important to the success of Stars & Stripes on land as yachtsman Conner was to it at sea, said that, although he expects to spend less time on the next Cup race once the committee is selected and at work, he won’t disengage completely.

“I will have a role in this in the future. . . . I will continue to be involved,” Burnham said.