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| Pensacola, Florida is prominently featured on the American Magic's team sails which will be utilized over the next 16 months in Barcelona as the world awaits the next America's Cup race which will be held in Barcelona in 2024 |
The county, city, the Tourist Develoment Council, and state have worked diligently to help support Pensacola Bay as the training center for America's Cup contender "American Magic." Based out of the New York Yacht Club--the American Magic team has been practicing in the Pensacola Area for the last three years for the next America's Cup sailing race.
A group of elected officials were given a tour of the American Magic sailing facilities late last year, and I have met the skipper of the boat and many of the crew members on a number of occasions over the last year and a half.
Recently, the county, city, the tourist development council,and state have joined forces to put together a funding plan to make Pensacola Bay the permanent training center for the American Magic. An $8.5 Million dollar project was announced last month to fund a state of the art training and sailing center for American Magic's team at the port of Pensacola. This project will bring more than 100 good jobs to our area paying an average of more than $100K per job. That project is moving forward.
Meanwhile, the American Magic team has now made their way over to the site of the next world cup, Barcelona Spain. the race will not occur until late 2024-- so the team will be there for the next 16 months training and preparing for that race.
After that, they will be back in Pensacola. The future of sailing in Pensacola is really looking strong and a lot of folks are going to know about Pensacola because as the American Magic team races, practices, and prepares for the America's Cup race over the next 16 months--they will be utilizing sails that prominently feature "Pensacola" on these same sails--like the one above (found at minute 2:00 of this video from yesterday chronicling the team's time in Barcelona)
What great visibility for our community--what a great advertisement for the Pensacola area!
I’m pleased that they are displaying our City because, so far, we have granted the New York Yacht Club $1.5 million of the citizens’ tourist development tax revenues, $8.5 million of the citizens’ BP oil spill compensation, and $3.9 million of the citizens’ Florida tax revenues.
ReplyDeleteOnly time will tell whether or not our $14 million dollars of public funding was a wise investment.
The opportunity costs are enormous, and Escambia County has many critical unfunded needs.