For Media, Getting in for the Cup Is a Breeze : Sailing: A press credential seems to be the easiest ticket in sports as only the tourists outnumber the perks.

David Dutton quit his job as a copy editor in Montreal to come here and free-lance as the only Canadian writing daily about the America’s Cup.

He rented an apartment in Ocean Beach, bought a bicycle and makes the 16-mile round-trip trek to the media center downtown to dutifully report on the yachts.

His $153 AT&T; America’s Cup telephone bill verifies his attention to detail.

He agreed to give his stories to his former employer, the Gazette, if that paper would transmit them to 20 of Canada’s largest newspapers.

“That’s what I’ve written so far,” Dutton said, producing a folder several inches thick. “For each story used in one of the 20 papers in Canada, I get a $40 check.”

And how many checks has Dutton received for his work on the America’s Cup in the last three months?

“None,” he said.

And you thought you were the only one on your block who didn’t care about the America’s Cup.

“One should never underestimate the apathy of Canadian readers or Canadian editors,” Dutton said. “This sounds really awful, but I was sort of hoping there might be an earthquake I could follow. Those things always make good copy: ‘Canadian Survives Earthquake.’ ”

On the other hand, Michael Koslowski has covered every race, met every deadline and, by all accounts, has done a fine job for the New Zealand Press Assn. But when Italy defeated New Zealand’s entry in the Louis Vuitton Cup races, the challenger finals, the New Zealand Press Assn. contacted Koslowski.

“They informed me that I was no longer employed,” he said.

Guy Gurney presumably has had more success. According to the nameplate in his work area, he is filing stories on behalf of a dozen publications, ranging from Newsweek to Screw magazine.

Welcome to the America’s Cup media center. Grab a table, pull up a chair, stake a claim to a telephone. Hey, somebody should use these things.

Way back when all this started, there was happy talk that there would be more reporters here than fish in the sea.

“You’ll need 200 seats in the media area,” they told Dennis Morgigno, media center manager.

“We have 215,” he said. “Next time we’ll get 100.”

The America’s Cup Organizing Committee said more than 1,200 media members have been accredited for this event. But that total includes broadcasters, technicians, photographers, newspaper reporters, wives, sponsor representatives, souvenir seekers and two birds that have been trapped in the media center for the last couple of weeks.

“If this were football, the Super Bowl or whatever, 75% of the people that have been credentialed here wouldn’t qualify,” said Bill Center, sportswriter for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

“That’s being conservative. The ACOC promised that there were all these thousands of media coming in, and to get to that level to show the Port District or the Yacht Club how much media were here, they are credentialing everybody.

“You can probably count on two hands the people that are in here working on a regular basis.”

Hal Rosenberg, general manager for KFSD, a classical music radio station that also provides sailing reports, will not do any of his station’s sailing reports, but both he and his wife have been accredited as working media.

“I qualify,” he said.

To identify the hard-core journalists, one must wait until party time. They are usually the ones who have stayed in the media center to write their stories.

“There are some media who we consider tourists,” said Jane Eagleson, ACOC’s media relations director. “There were some court proceedings a few weeks ago on one of our financial situations. Some of these people were calling up, asking what time is (the race) going to start? And where will it be? It was like, gee, you guys always know how to find out where the parties are. Why don’t you use the same tactics to get your news story?”

Even with so many people who don’t belong in the media center, there are many empty desks.

“It’s a free office up here, isn’t it?” said Bob Fisher, who doubles as sailing writer for the Manchester Guardian and editor of the Auld Mug Weekly. “Hell, look at all that spare space. You could have been running your office here for the last four months and nobody would have known the difference. Wouldn’t cost you a thing.”

Charles Doherty has been at the media center since Jan. 15, and no one has seen him write a word.

“First he was accredited under the Investment Reporter, and now he’s credentialed under a Brazilian publication,” Eagleson said.

“I’m in the merchant banking business, investment

banking,” Doherty said. “I’m writing a story about the financing of the America’s Cup as it relates to public corporations and private corporations. . . . I’m making contacts and meeting people in countries that I wanted to check on investment possibilities.

“I may write about three stories while I’m here and earn less than $1,000. I’ll spend probably $8,000. Let me tell you, the dollars I make from writing don’t justify the cost of me being down here.”

While waiting to make contact with officials from the top racing syndicates, Doherty said, he uses the media center to stay in touch with his investment banking clients.

“I answer calls, make some calls and may look at five or six investments a day,” he said.

Lauren Dagge, who had a credential dangling from her neck identifying her as a representative of the Independent News, resides a few feet from the investment banker’s makeshift office.

“I’m dictating some things back to Dublin, but I’m really here working on a press conference for the Whitbread Round-the-World Race,” she said. “You don’t want to talk to me because I really don’t belong here.”

So what? Make yourself at home. Coffee is $1. A 1989-1992 International Yacht Racing Rules book, originally $10, is now $5. Any media representative wanting to buy a $175 ticket to the America’s Cup Ball must curry favor first with the media center staff. The Motion Sickness Press Information Kit, however, is free.

A ride in the media boat is $75. Take along the wife, and she’s considered your guest and you will pay $300 for her company.

Most everyone is staying in and watching the races on TV.

Enter the media contest and guess the winner and time of the day’s races and walk off with a pair of Swiss Army sunglasses or a Louis Vuitton duffel bag.

“I went out and priced the duffel bag and they sell retail for $825,” one local media winner said. “I’m trying to sell it now for $600.”

Many of the free-lance writers believe the contests have been fixed to reward favored reporters.

“There is an ‘A’ list and a ‘B’ list of media members,” Dutton said.

The official America’s Cup Citizen watches, estimated at $325, were gifts to selected media representatives--the “A” list--although one prominent journalist insists he returned his to avoid a conflict of interest. Most everyone, however, received the bottle of vodka inside the Stolichnaya bag at the party for the Society of International Nautical Journalists.

“I had to steal mine,” said John Willkie, president and general manager of Bay 63, a community television station that has yet to go on the air. “I didn’t get one when I came in and someone else had three. I told him, ‘Isn’t that my bag?’ Well, it was late in the party and he was very drunk and I got my bag.”

Observers noted that Willkie also left with one of the Stolichnaya jackets given to invited guests.

“He hadn’t been invited, although he called with his RSVP,” Eagleson said. “I think he was tapped on the shoulder later and advised it wasn’t a good idea to wear the jacket around here.”

Willkie has been here for the last few months working as a stringer for the Washington Times, but he also videotapes many of the press conferences and events for his new TV station.

“I’ve gotten one story in the paper so far, so in terms of the amount of money, I’m getting about 10 cents an hour,” he said. “But to me it’s almost been a lark. I don’t drink, but a lot of people say they are here only because of the alcohol.

“I’m going to use the videotape for some sort of post-mortem, and it could be an investigative type on the ACOC’s mismanagement. The people involved in this organization have got paid too much money for the little amount of work they do.

“For a while, I was keeping people’s time cards. I would come in at 7 in the morning, and I would know who arrived two minutes early and who was an hour late. The man who runs this room, Dennis Morgigno, is paid a lot of money and he was putting in a good 28-30 hours a week and I was putting in about 60 monitoring him.”

Morgigno offers no apologies. Although flabbergasted that someone would track his working time, he said he has been here on the day before Christmas, the day after and almost every day since. He has been here when everyone else has left for the night, and has arrived before their return. He has responded to the media’s demands, although a limited ACOC budget has not allowed him to be as accommodating as the flashy Louis Vuitton public relations team.

And he also has provided Willkie with the use of a $5,000 laptop computer.

“We’ve had our problems, but then we’ve reacted and corrected them,” said Morgigno, a former television reporter. “I agree, there are too many tourists in here. We’ve yanked a couple. We’ve tried to monitor the credentialing process, but it’s hard to say who is legit and who is not.

“Take the Vineyard Gazette; is he a yachting journalist on the par with Angus Phillips (of the Washington Post) and Rich Roberts (of The Times)? No. Is he writing an article? Probably. Does he deserve to be here? Probably.”

The first person reporters--real or otherwise--meet when they apply for credentials is Debbie Reynolds. No, not the unsinkable one, but rather the unflappable Reynolds, who verifies that they are who they say they are.

“I had one guy who tried to finagle a photo credential,” Reynolds said. “The photo boats get closer to the races. They are smaller and it costs $75, while the spectators will pay $500. We stopped him, but he tried to get on the boat anyway.”

Said Lenny Ignelzi, photographer for the Associated Press: “I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Watching this is like watching porno films. Only the participants are having any fun. Everyone else is bored.”

Figure it out: New Zealand wins and then loses a protest, and then the race is annulled. The bowsprit?

Koslowski said: “In America, most people would rather watch a replay of the college basketball final than two blokes plodding around on the water and then have the results reversed in the protest room later. It’s the same old America’s Cup bull. It’s not sports, it’s politics.”

Those in the know, however, enjoy every bloody moment of the America’s Cup. Some have written enough words to fill a Russian novel, and although it may make as much sense, they attack their daily task with passion.

“There are only so many of us here, and I feel a tremendous responsibility to the people back home,” said Laura LaPosta, a reporter for Il Mattino in Naples, Italy. “The press in Italy is a little bit different than anywhere else. The press in Italy will write that our teams, they are geniuses when they win, and when they lose, we write that they should leave. Go away.”

David Dutton continues to pedal his bicycle to work. He writes and writes and waits and waits for someone in Canada to notice his work.

“I have a really good sense of accomplishment every day,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m succeeding because I’m producing. I know this stuff is good.

“The price of my stories is going to rise sharply in the finals--from $40 to $60. If I get 20 papers using it, that should be $1,200 a day. But then, I’m not holding my breath.”