TV1 News has spent half an hour obsessing about the decision of Team New Zealand to race the next America’s Cup in Barcelona. If it’s that important, I guess it’s worthwhile Swimwatch adding its ten cents worth to the debate.

I have no idea why Television New Zealand decided to take a myopic view of Grant Dalton’s decision. I swear Simon Dallow was about to burst into tears at the injustice. Hayley Holt was surprisingly smug in a, “What do you expect from Team New Zealand” sort of way. Self-important Andrew Saville scoffed about money being Team New Zealand’s Holy Grail. Even Abby Wilson, a journalist for whom I have the utmost respect, decided to go with the money above principle line.

It was all far too much. Show me a top New Zealand sports team or person that doesn’t race the majority of their best competitions overseas. Where did John Walker win the Olympic Games? Where did he break the World Record for a mile? Where do the All Blacks normally play England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and France? Where did Paul Coll rise to be the world’s number one squash player? Where did Danyon Loader swim most of his races preparing to win the Atlanta Olympic Games? Where are Liam Lawson and Marcus Armstrong racing fast motor cars? Where did Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon, Brendon Hartley and Denny Hulme do the same thing? Where did Valerie Adams go to train for a year? Where does her brother compete? Where did Rod Dixon win an Olympic medal and where did he win the New York Marathon? And finally, where do Zoe Sadowski-Synnott and Nico Porteous win their Red Bull this and their Xtreme Sport that? Sure as God made little green apples none of that happened in New Zealand.  

Where were Simon Dallow’s tears about all that. Where was Andrew Saville tapping a pot plant at the top of the Cardrona Ski Field saying it was the second most expensive pot plant in the world. Hypocrisy, it seems has no limits when it comes to Television New Zealand sport. I actually have the figures for my daughter, Jane. She was a New Zealand Champion and open record holder. She represented New Zealand at the Oceania Championships, and the Pan Pacific Games and she swam in the finals of the American NCAA Swimming Championships. From her first race to her last she competed 723 times. 498 of those races were overseas and 225 were in New Zealand. I would think that ratio is similar to most of New Zealand’s good athletes. That does not mean Jane or anyone else – even Grant Dalton – doesn’t love their country. It just means that to take on the best, to promote their sport, requires competing in the Northern Hemisphere.

Ah, but I hear Andrew Saville smugly sigh, “What about the money”? And, with a similar sigh of scorn, some moron called Tony Steel at the Stuff website agrees. In Stuff, Steel even compared Dalton’s negotiating skills with “Captain Jack Sparrow, sailing international waters looking to nail his tattered banner to the highest bidder’s mast.” Tony Steel – what?????

Now I’m not fully aware of the money involved, but it seems that Dalton has accepted something like $124 million from Barcelona compared to $31million offered by the New Zealand Government. For those of you without a handy calculator that’s a difference of $93million – three times the New Zealand offer. If New Zealand wants Team New Zealand to compete in this event, that’s the sort of hard decision it takes. Well done Grant Dalton. You’ve done well so far. God speed to the main event.

And consider this, Dallow, Steel and Holt, as you sigh your way through another Russel Coutts’ crucifixion, if you were working for TV1 for $31,000 and TV3 said here’s $124,000 to come and work for us – would you go? I bet you would. You would abandon the national broadcaster, owned by all New Zealanders, for money from an American mass media giant. So much for your patriotism. You guys are hypocrites beyond belief.   

And finally, the city of Barcelona. I don’t know how often readers have been to Barcelona. I’ve been ten times for stays between two weeks and two days. Grant Dalton has chosen an ideal city to contest and promote America’s Cup sailing. The waterfront runs in a T shape across the city’s main street – Las Ramblas. Both the ancient harbour and Las Ramblas are iconic. Shops, restaurants, flower stalls, souvenir shops, and ice cream parlours abound. Barcelona has finished what Auckland has as a work in progress.

Where the waterfront and Las Ramblas cross is a monument to Christopher Columbus. You see, in 1493, Columbus reported to Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand V in Barcelona after his first trip to the new American continent. From Columbus to the America’s Cup. Sigh as much as you like Andrew Saville – that’s quite a journey. And a story of far more interest than Saville’s parochial effort on Wednesday night. Just as the voyages of Columbus are considered a turning point in human history, marking the beginning of globalization. Dalton’s decision could be equally significant in America’s Cup history.

If you get a chance to watch the racing spend an afternoon at the beachside L’Escamarlà restaurant. Fortunately, because I think its quite expensive, I was taken there by an American who could afford the bill. But that location, eating that food, watching top drawer sport, any city, even Auckland, would find very hard to beat. The America’s Cup is in good hands. Dalton has made a good choice.

Let’s hope he can win it there and find an equally attractive spot for his sport in four- or five-years’ time.