Team New Zealand fans are putting their money where their mouth is, with a just-launched online fundraising campaign to help support another America's Cup challenge already approaching $50,000.
Team New Zealand fan Ned Dawson, chief executive of Auckland company Kia Kaha Media, started the fundraising drive on Monday morning, with a $1 million goal in mind.
''We'll get that, I have no hesitation whatsoever,'' he said yesterday afternoon.
By yesterday evening, more than $45,000 had been raised from about 600 individual donations, ranging from just a few dollars to $1000 each.
Mr Dawson attended some of the America's Cup regatta races in San Francisco and now helps run two Facebook pages supporting Team New Zealand which collectively have more than 65,000 followers.
The pages were the catalyst for the fundraising campaign, after fans sent ''message after message asking: 'How can we support them [the team]?','' he said.
He set up an account online through the Telecom Foundation's ''Givealittle'' zero fees fundraising service, and the money quickly started flooding in.
The Telecom Foundation would hold the funds for Team New Zealand until it was ready to launch its next America's Cup challenge, Mr Dawson said.
''What my goal is for this, it's to get enough money ... to keep the team together, to pay wages or whatever they've got to do, so it gives them some breathing space so they can get the game plan going.''
The link to support Team New Zealand is https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/teamnzac35
