Murray Stott suggests Team New Zealand be morphed into a new entity of wider reach, including motorsport.
The Prime Minster is correct to question the value of any government funding for Emirates Team New Zealand to enter the 35th America's Cup, given the common perception it is essentially a regatta for billionaires' toys.
Treasury advises government funding would only produce a poor return; in step with public opinion, which is at present 2-1 against further funding.
Minister Steven Joyce extols the opportunity as ''leveraging'' brand New Zealand.
However, when applying standard measures of media and online impact impressions, the America's Cup offers rather low-levels of bang for bucks invested when compared with other sports' platforms and the olive branch of a local race could prove a poisoned chalice for any return on investment.
In a country which punches above its weight and leverages off a wide field of endeavours from splitting the atom to scaling Everest, cleaning up at the Oscars (Rings) and Grammys (Lorde) to fathering the US space race (Pickering) and winning the America's Cup (on the water) a couple of times we can all ride waves of winning Kiwi adulation ...
However, it is important to capitalise brand-building waves at their crest (Sir Peter Blake days) and avoid the troughs where the America's Cup is now destined.
Hence, our largest trading partner, Australia, had the smarts not to enter the 35th, even before Bermuda was announced as host.
The Government is caught between a rock and a hard place.
For the team to disband due to a lack of funding would equate to a loss, given it is usually more expensive to rebuild such specialist teams.
At the end of the day, however, the very team that had created a national tidal wave of anticipatory contagion during those first races, lost.
Only success breeds success for the investors/sponsors.
And, if government funding was rated on providing jobs and generating local taxes as primary cost-benefits, then why not provide funding for New Zealand's pre-eminent superyacht builder, Alloy Yachts (winner of over 30 design awards) which has had to lay off 130 staff of late because of a lack of orders, ascribed to the high New Zealand dollar.
As a solution to the impasse and, a positive means of amelioration for the America's Cup and marine industry vicissitudes regarding everything from venues to exchange rates, I would propose that for Team New Zealand to continue to receive government funding, it be morphed into a new entity of wider reach, including motorsport.
CEO Grant Dalton is well-qualified to manage such expansion.
The country could leverage off its heritage of podium glory delivered by Denny Hulme, Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon; assisting the new breed of internationally based, outstanding Kiwi drivers such as Mitch Evans and Richie Stanaway.
When evaluating leveraged bang for buck, Richie Stanaway took the ATS Formula 3 podium 18 times during 2011 (13 as winner; Michael Schumacher five times in same class).
While both drivers have gratefully received considerable local support, the remaining barrier to entry for them to secure an F1 drive as currently offered, is the upfront sponsorship (entry fee) which can be anywhere from 2.5 million to 6 million ($NZ5 million to $NZ12 million).
Local industry supporters and sponsors could not reasonably be expected to cover such higher levels of investment.
However, the Government could more broadly leverage funding by backing consistent winners and leveraging a Kiwi return to F1, after 30 years.
Consider Mr Key's new flag being raised each time one of our Kiwi champs has a podium place at any of the 21 Formula 1 races through Europe, China, Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, US, UAE and Qatar. Sure beats the red socks off Bermuda!
During 2011, Stanaway won more major races than anyone else in the world.
Industry research reveals that he achieved a larger global TV presence and media impression that year than the All Blacks during the Rugby World Cup and double that of the America's Cup.
For the Government to now morph Team New Zealand into a vehicle with broader reach to include motorsport is not rocket science, but simply following the logic of Emerson: hitch your wagon to a star, rather than tack towards the sponsorship doldrums where funding could disappear without trace, into a celebrated vortex.
• Murray Stott is a trademark agent and sponsorship broker based in Dunedin, but mostly away from the city on business.
