Report: R.I. can compete for major sailing events

Summer may be the season for sailing in Rhode Island, but winter is shaping up to be prosperous as well. Two major February announcements – that Newport will be the only United States stop on the 2014-2015 Volvo Ocean Race and that last summer’s America Cup World Series Event brought a total of $52.7 million to the state – bring promises of continued industry success.
“We are now solidly in the international eye, not only as the destination that we have always been, but we are a main player in running international yachting competitions,” said Brad Read, executive director of Sail Newport.
It was always the goal of Read and the rest of the 30-member America’s Cup host committee to be able to demonstrate not only the event’s economic success in spending, tax revenue and job creation, but to leverage that into recapturing some of the sailing glory that in many minds went away with the America’s Cup that had been here from the 1930s through 1983, when the New York Yacht Club lost to the Royal Perth Yacht Club of Australia.
The “Large Marine Events Benefits Assessment Modeling Report,” released in early February, analyzed surveys of 1,260 attendees, total attendance figures and spending dollars. The goals were to appraise the fiscal impact and to provide ideas for how to better manage such events going forward.
Now the findings will be used to campaign for improvements at Fort Adams, where the state and the host committee set up a viewing village and most event-related activities took place, and for future sailing competitions.
“What the study helps us do is show potential to event producers,” said Paul Harden, director of the marine trades/workforce development sector at the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, who was executive director of the America’s Cup Rhode Island 2012.
Conducted by Planning Decisions Inc., a Maine-based planning and research firm, and Charles Colgan from the University of Southern Maine, the economic-impact report revealed the America’s Cup event brought $38.2 million to Rhode Island businesses, job income of $12 million, and $2.5 million in general state tax revenue from visitors, organizers, sponsors, racing teams and media covering the event. Pre-event predictions put the impact at an estimated $72 million, but that was based on an original nine-day event plan that was to have included more racing days.
Winning the Volvo Ocean Race host port bid – the first ever for Newport – is just the first new event that can be attributed to having hosted the America’s Cup world series event here, Read said.
“We needed to prove that our business-to-business environment here in Rhode Island is something special, and we did,” he said.
Newport originally lost the Volvo Ocean Race bid, which was awarded to Baltimore in late January. Scheduling conflicts with the Preakness Stakes, a Triple Crown horse race, may have contributed to Volvo Ocean Race, described as the “Everest of Sailing” on its website, moving the United States stop to Newport.
There are not yet estimates on how many visitors the Volvo Ocean Race, which will come to Newport in April or May 2015, will bring or how much spending is expected.
Transportation access was one major complaint among America’s Cup event visitors. Visitor complaints also focused on food and drink vendor locations and availability, communications regarding transportation arrangements – particularly a bottleneck situation on water taxi/ferry docks.
A 240-foot pier in front of the Fort Adams Visitors Center, currently under construction, will be completed by Volvo Race time and will expand water-taxi dock capacity.
Most of the food decisions, including to place vendors inside, were made by the Americas Cup Event Authority, but Read said he would advise future event planners to choose differently.
Planning Decisions recommended better and more frequent placement of larger signs to advertise event locations, schedules and amenities. It also recommended better communication with local businesses to increase commercial partnerships, including coordination of event and shopping times.
Other already approved improvements include water-line upgrades to eliminate plastic bottle use and for electrical infrastructure.
Evan Smith, president and CEO of Discover Newport, said his marketing committee worked with a zero-dollar budget for the America’s Cup event, which was advertised mostly through social media. •

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