On the agenda for San Francisco’s Budget and Finance Sub-Committee this morning, a hearing to review the status of the America’s Cup Organizing Committee’s (ACOC) efforts to meet its fundraising goals (it’s behind) and to review the City’s potential liabilities if the ACOC fails to meet its goals, what the City’s options are for recovering any shortfall, and “whether the City is still responsible for staging the event when the event organizers have not fulfilled their financial obligations.”
Having originally estimated the economic impact of the Cup at over $1.2 billion back in 2010 when pitching the event, a yet to be publicly released report has cut the projected economic impact of the event to well under a billion dollars and as low as $800 million according to some sources.
At the same time, the City’s estimated out of pocket costs and exposure have shrunk from $32 million to $22 million with an estimated $3 million dollars in fundraising to go.