The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that sources are indicating San Francisco has been selected to host the 2013 America's Cup. The event has yet to make any formal announcement and stated that a decision has not yet been made. Reports indicate that hosting the 2013 America's Cup would provide an economic boost surpassed only by the Olympics and the World Cup. Those numbers can be parsed many ways, but even if that's an exaggeration, reality would still be rather large.
The Bay Area has a significant connection to the America's Cup race as the most recent winner this year, BMW Oracle, is owned by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. His team is sponsored by the Golden Gate Yacht Club. According to the article, the winning syndicate gets to choose where to defend the Cup and Ellison has indicated he'd love to host the race here in the San Francisco Bay.
An official announcement would seem likely to come sometime shortly after the turn of the New Year. If it does officially happen, racing enthusiasts will have plenty of sailing to watch:
The next Cup will include qualifying matches and pre-event races around the world. San Francisco will see at least 43 days of racing spread over more than a year before culminating in a final match in September 2013.
The races are projected to infuse $1.2 billion into the city's economy while generating the equivalent of more than 8,000 jobs.
That's certainly a sizable chunk of change for a city looking to continue rebounding from the recession.
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