ability, led by russell, that brought this trophy back to the usa. i'm very proud to be a part of that team. we are excited to be in san francisco. we are a team that represents the golden gate yacht club. [applause] [applause] i mean, i'm a member of both the st. francis yacht club and the golden gate yacht club. just look to your right and there's the golden gate yacht club down at the end of the peir. they have been enormously supportive of us since we started our pursuit of the america's cup in 2003. we made it to the finals. we lost to a team, a swiss team, that was led by the most

successful competitive sailor in the history of competitive sailing. a guy by the name of russell. [applause] if i recall correctly, russell only lost two races in new zealand in 2003. they were both to a boat called usa 76 and it wasn't a bmw oracle racing team. they were triumphant. they went on to defeat team new zealand. for the first time ever of the america's cup -- it moved to europe. the great sailing nation, switzerland. [laughter] i love the suisse. they are good that tennis. they are good that a lot of things. it was russell the first one the -- won the america's cup

for new zealand, and then won on behalf of the swiss team. there was a pattern i began to recognize. [laughter] russell is on team new zealand and a windy america's cup. he is on swiss team and they won the america's cup. i had this idea -- [laughter] i sailed a bunch with russell and against him. i decided it was a much better idea to sail with him than against them. i think the record speaks for itself. russell could not be here today. he is ill. he has pneumonia. he apologizes for not being here. russell has been our leader and organizer of this great team to

win this trophy for him for the fourth time. he will be our leader again in defending the trophy against -- [applause] i decided not to make the mistake of letting russell go to another team. that would be a really bad idea. we signed him up again. we will be defending the trophy against a number of great teams. in fact, they will be the greatest sailing teams in the world. sailors of that caliber, sailing the fastest boats in the world, in the most extraordinary place to hold a sailboat race. [applause] i do not think people realize that the america's cup is typically held out in the ocean.

if you want to watch the race, you better get out on a boat. if you want to watch the races in new zealand, you have to get out of auckland and into a boat. you have to be on a boat. historically, relatively few people have seen america's cups. that is all about to change. we are holding this cup in but san francisco bay, the most spectacular amphitheater for sailing that god created on this earth. [applause] of hundreds of thousands of people will be able to watch these races, whether they are cheering on their favorite team, or in one of the office

buildings that are in downtown san francisco. they could be in sausalito or any place on the shoreline, or in the buildings around the bay. people are lucky enough to the palms on broadway can look out their window. [laughter] it is really very unusual. for the first time, the america's cup will be witnessed by hundreds of thousands of spectators because of this spectacular venue. also for the first time in a very long time, the america's cup will be racing in the fastest boats on the planet. typically, the america's cup boats -- they were boats you could go out and buy.

not anymore. these new 72-footers, they will routinely go 30 knots. if you are not easily frightened, they can probably reach 40 knots in that crazy san francisco breeze. consistently every afternoon you get 25 knots of breeze coming from the golden gate and flushing down the bay. it will be absolutely extreme sailing. exhilarating for the sailors and for the fans who are watching. it's a far cry from the boat i've learned to sail on at uc- berkeley yacht club. they did not have 72-foot catamarans. they did have 14's.

[laughter] i did not know how many sailors are in the room. it is pretty much a rectangular tupperware container where you might store your leftovers with a small sail. i took it out under the golden gate bridge once. i will never do that again. let me close by thanking mayor newsom and the 11 members of the board of supervisors that voted unanimously to support this event in san francisco. the mayor has been steadfast. i would like to thank the mayor for his work in making sure that this event was held in this city. [applause]

he worked diligently, creatively, tirelessly in making sure that we felt welcomed, that we had a place on the waterfront where we could do the engineering and building the sailing village in time for the event in 2013. and then he rallied all of the other force is necessary throughout the city to support this. it is an unprecedented 11 to 0 vote in the board of supervisors. [applause] the mayor mentioned some of the many people that worked over their holidays to get this agreement signed. now the work has just begun. there's a lot of engineering to

do. there's a loss of construction to do. in 2013, i believe we will have more than 14 teams. we have 16 teams here representing more than a dozen countries from around the world, contesting for the oldest trophy in sport, the america's cup, which is that last year in san francisco -- here in san francisco. thank you. [applause] [laughter] >> larry for in interim mayor. i like that. thank you. most importantly, we want to

thank everybody in this room for all the tremendous support in bringing the america's cup to san francisco bay. it is because of our great city and our great community that we were awarded the solder. a big round of applause to everybody in this room. [applause] let's bring this to a close. thank you very much. the media, please report right across the way for a press conference. the rest of you can take a picture of this

>> you said you have an expectation of 14 to 16 teams? you have four counters now, five counting you. when you expect to see the other dozen? we know of about four more -- five more that i think will be entering shortly. there are a bunch of countries that are very interested. the chinese, the japanese, but over the next 12 months, i think we'll have more entries. >> do you expect that the team will be announcing, now that we have the venue selected, the fifth team. minder standing is that there are four challenger teams.

will the sixth team now be mentioned? >> [inaudible] >> ok, thank you. >> i have a question. ian, a lot of our readers are curious. what will exclusive use of the bay look-alike for 43 days -- look like for 43 days? >> depending on how many challengers we have, bear in mind that the racing that we are going to do -- these are not four and a half hour races. these are 45-minute races. they will be shorter races. also, because of the nature of

the time that we want the race is to run, we will be using a more compact course. i expected that commercial shipping, the america's cup race course, and the limitations -- the city front, and a line that we draw for the competitors, i think we can live altogether. it's just a matter of managing all of our needs. as the event authority has said, it's very important for us to televise these events. they have to be regular in terms of the time that they start. we are going to have very specific times that we want to start the race, and very specific times that we want to finish the race. we will be adjusting the length of the course. hopefully, that will work with commercial shipping and whatever

else has got to happen on the bay of san francisco. we all want to live here happily. >> mayor, can you talk about the biggest challenges? >> the most important thing now is to move forward with the environmental process, which will take about one year. we have got to make sure that process begins in earnest quickly. the second thing, in the future ex-mayor very soon, and i want to make sure there's continuity in the city, and make sure we have a team that is established and an organized effort from various departments, and with other agencies in the city, to make sure there's real coordination and collaboration, as well as from state agencies and federal agencies. unfortunately, the new chair of the commission that is incredibly important in context of some of the deals -- i think

that continuity will be well established. the engineering work, the drawling, the permits, moving forward with the construction on the underbelly of the piers, and make sure we are prepared for these earlier races and to make sure the races are well endowed before the 2013 date. >> this question is for ian. just a follow up on the court's question. a lot of interest in more specifically where the turning marks will be, and if you will go beyond the golden gate bridge, the demarcation line? >> there's a possibility -- and some of our briefings recently, we would like the golden gate bridge to come into play,

likewise alcatraz, and this is the front. it's quite likely we could start to decide -- the market could go up to 1 mile to the west of the bridge and still maintain our course. we want to have a mix of courses. we want to have a degree of difficulty. these boats will be very physical to sail. they have extremely large sails. many would be dealt with with mechanically driven motor. that's not the case here. to get these boats around two or 3 miles lengths of course various times, it is going to be tough. we envision the body of the course to be between alcatraz to

just slightly west of the bridge, the city front. >> has a wind limit been decided upon? we heard a rumor from 3 knots to 33 >> i think one of the great criticisms about recent america's cup is that big old heavy vote did not sell in a lot of breeze but did not move in slight breeze. this class has been designed with two clauses of solid wing styles. a 32-meter one and a 40-meter one. obviously, the 40-meter one is for the lighter errors. -- airs. when we conceived the camerons,

there was a desire to make it work for television. we decided that we wanted to sail between three and 30 knots. we want to sell whenever we can, but the reality is, the condition of the sea is just as important as the wind, whether it is an ebb tide or not. there are many things that we are managing. there are many things that we will be dealing with. it takes me back to my skiff days. we will be able to manage pretty much any condition at san francisco can offer to us. >> there is a report out today that you made by the nba hornets and move them to san jose. >> to the best of my knowledge, they are owned by the nba. george jones sold them to the nba. the nba outbid me for the team.

>> [inaudible] >> not true. i did offer $350 million for the hornets. i think i was slightly outbid by the nba. >> david chiu alluded to the tough negotiations that took place to bring this to san francisco. i am sure there were some last- minute concessions to make this possible. specifically, the waterfront property to be transferred over versus least, the amount of money that you will be investing in san francisco? >> if i could go first on this. there has been a lot of misunderstanding as to what happened. when the city of offer their

proposal -- and perfectly reasonable, we would move from one set of piers to another and we had to do an engineering assessment of the new location. it happened close enough to our deadline where we had made public commitments that we had to pick a location by the end of last year. given the new location, we had done a thorough investment of the first set of piers. at the northern location, we had to do a new set of assessments to see if we could build a sailing village and get that done by 2013. that took some time. as a fallback, if we thought we could not do that, we would have to go to a city where the sailing facilities were already in place, like newport. if we could not build the sailing village in the new location, we were going to go to

newport. that is what that was about. >> let me just say, maybe i am just old hat in some respects, being around labor negotiations for the past seven years, i did not think anything was particularly surprising about the negotiations. it is surprising, as i sat up front, the team will be investing hundreds of millions of dollars over all. they are bringing something extraordinary to the city. they want to make sure there is some certainty in the process. michelle just referred to the fact, i refer to it prior, that there is less certainty because of venues because we have to build them. to answer your question, we have to work through some of those finer points in the last few

weeks. it the end of the day, what was remarkable to me, we agreed and committed to a process and got to where we needed to go within the spirit of the legislation that the board of supervisors supported unanimously. so i was pleased with that process and certainly with the outcome. it was a very advantageous process at the end of the day for both sides. we have more clarity on their needs, and i think, we have more clarity on what we need to do to process as well. >> we always wanted to come to san francisco but we needed to have a high degree of confidence that we could get the sailing village finished by 2013. that was the critical factor. we had enough information in terms of the engineering. we have to go through the ceqa process, which we know will take one year, we hope not longer, but we did not know as much about the northern location as

the location near at&t ballpark. we have to do the engineering assessments and it came up positively. we are very confident, unless something very unanticipated comes up, we will be able to get the village built in time and have a great event in 2013. >> let me underscore this issue of confidence, it is essential. when the board expresses unanimity, environmental organizations, community groups, one of the big benefits of this kind of project is when you have more support than when you began, it gives you a degree of certainty that he may not have otherwise received. the ceqa process will begin in earnest. there is no guarantee with ceqa, but we are about as close as we can with some certainty to get that done.

>> just for clarification, the least versus ownership? >> it is an issue on see what 30 -- seawall lot 30. we will be working with what the board provided us. we believe confidently that we can get that approved through the state agencies. we think it was an important thing for the event authority and advantageous from the city's perspective. >> mr. alliellison, there is a t of attention between city negotiators and your group. just wondering how you can work past that to make sure that this is a successful event? >> we are very excited about being in san francisco. we have a high degree of confidence we can get the village done by 2013. the relationship and morale with

our team is high and we are excited to be here. our relationship with the city is positive. this is the beginning, not an end. we have to work closely together with a number of people in the city. i think both sides are highly motivated to make this the best america's cup that has ever been, one of the greatest sporting events that has ever been. it is in both sides' interest to do a good job here. i think we get along fine. >> phase one is behind us. we have already entered into phase two. that is the past. frankly, a lot of it was while the overplayed. we are in very good stead, moving forward. >> mr. ellison, you are going to end up with a lot of our rights to develop.

what are your plans along those piers once the america's cup is over? >> but i do not think i can lay out what we want to do pier by pier. a lot of them are not contributing to the city and could be more beautiful than they are now. we want to develop them in such a way that is both environmentally friendly, makes an economic contribution to the city, and where residents of the city want to go, whether it is for lunch or a walk by the waterfront, or boarding one of these wonderful books to go for a sale. we want to in view that life into the city. >> there was talk about putting a hotel on pier 50. is that something that you would

consider for one of the others? >> we have focused on the sailing village, not a hotel. our big focus by 2013 is to make sure, if we have 16 teams here -- which is what we are planning for. i hope we get that many. we want to make sure we can house those teams, boats, their equipment, make sure all of that is in place so they can focus just on competitive sailing and not worry about logistics, problems with their facilities. >> behind the scenes, we are working on visas, providing the resources for these teams. there is an enormous amount of work that does not get attention. san francisco is very good at those things. our village is already built.

our stadium is already built. we have to spruce up these facilities, and a lot of them you do not even have access to it. there will be investments made, and that will be the legacy of this race. it is an extraordinary thing, from san francisco's perspective. that is why so many san franciscans support of this effort. >> mr. ellison -- >> we are almost out of time. two more questions. >> the america's cup is an enormous undertaking. i know many people have tried and failed and left. what is the driving force and motivation for you to keep going and accomplish this almost impossible goal?

>> there is a personal and to that, why i pursued the america's cup, and then there is the sense and responsibility i have toward the sailing community. turning this from an elitist event into a popular sporting event. i sail primarily with professional sailors. i sail on the professional circuit. i spend a lot of time with professional sailors. professional sailing is not as popular a sport as it could be, i think, because it has not done the right tv coverage, the boats we are sailing on are perhaps not as exciting to watch or not as exciting to watch or sail, compared to somebody doing