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Origin to fold?

Posted 8 months, 13 days ago

Origin to fold?
Well, with Team Shosholoza closing its doors rather sadly as sponsor T-Systems pulls the plug by not exercising their continued sponsorship option and United Internet Team Germany now officially shelved, it surely begs the question regarding the continuing viability of Team Origin. Sir Keith Mills has been very magnanimous in offering the (quite considerable) team retainers but you can only get kicked in the balls so many times until it begins to hurt and poor Keith may as well just give the money to charity or burn it...it would be quicker and far less painful. Now with that other defunct team ETNZ putting a giant spanner in the works with an additional court case, we could be looking at years and years before another full AC regatta gets underway. They say that "a fool and his money are lucky to come together in the first place" but Keith's no fool and he must be talking to his advisers now about pulling the plug before he goes down the tubes on this...I just can't see how he can sustain this business model. If he went on the Dragon's Den TV show with this business plan, he would last about three seconds before getting laughed off screen, so he simply has to make the decision and fast. Talk about bad timing...and, if I'm honest, I don't think he talked to the right people and didn't listen to the right advice but then again the America's Cup is littered with tales like this. Plus ca change, plus ca change...    Full Story »

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