Yes, Bermuda is an interesting choice...

But at least they should have had one of the LVC series stops in SF to take advantage of the predictable wind. I would have considered Freemantle as well for it's "Doctor". So you'd have 3 relatively predictable wind venues (Freemantle, SF and Portsmouth) and 3 variables

In a perfect world, it would be nice to see the economic blip that SF got for the Cup. While it was easy to spectate for free I'd venture a guess that there was a lot of extra restaurant seats taken, burgers eaten, taxis hired, trinkets bought outside of the Cup village which overall might have come close to some of the wildly optimistic targets that Larry sold to the city of SF.

But moving to the future... since few of us have airline tickets to Bermuda (or moved our yachts there), what in your mind would be a reasonable way for the AC franchise to make money off all of our eyeballs?

I for one loved the last AC YouTube stuff, even if it happened to be delayed by an hour or so to make sure production/broadcast was smooth.

Would I buy a Pay-per-view at $4.99 for the final series? Probably. Would I buy that app that didn't work? NOT. I don't need real time (although that's cool) as long as I can see the full replay.

The graphics were cool too (took some getting used to, but understand why it was needed for the non-sailing types). Gary's comments were laughable, but the old lead dragging stodgies need a familiar face.

Grant's "sex breath" was funny too, as was some "spicy" dialogue that slipped through the onboard camera/mics.

If the AC would copy whatever the NFL or the frigging Golf people are doing to get people to watch (graphics, back story, etc) it might help. They tried last time and it was moderately successful. The greatest comeback of all time was a nice bonus.


Jay