In one year, the two finalists for the America’s Cup will face off in Auckland, New Zealand. With any luck, San Diego’s Dennis Conner will be renewing his long-standing rivalry with the Kiwis.

Yet even if the venerable Conner should win again Down Under — as he did 15 years ago in Fremantle, Australia — the exalted America’s Cup won’t be returning to San Diego. It will go back to the New York Yacht Club, which won what is affectionately known as the “Auld Mug” in 1851 and held it steadfastly for 132 years before losing it to the Aussies in 1983.

Ironically, Conner was at the helm of that losing boat. Now, under the auspices of Team Dennis Conner, he is sailing for the New York club again, but as a challenger, not the defender, in hopes of returning the prized Victorian-era pitcher to the club that originated the event. For the first time in nearly two decades, no San Diego club will be vying for yacht racing’s most sought-after trophy.

Say what?

As one wag put it to me, how could San Diego, which hosted the event in 1988, 1992 and 1995, go from being a major America’s Cup player to a minor league participant? And what does that say about the local sailing establishment?

The reality is, it says more about the way the America’s Cup game is played these days — and how money is the controlling factor — than about the local sailing establishment. In fact, perhaps the local sailing establishment should be applauded for having enough sense not to wade into the America’s Cup game again.

Although no local yachties will say so for the record, plenty confide privately that the America’s Cup is something of a white elephant to the host club. It is very disruptive to the general activities of a yacht club, which typically does not have the organizational structure to stage a professional sporting event of such magnitude on its own. But even more to the point, challenging for and defending the cup costs tens of millions of dollars.

As ESPN’s Gary Jobson once quipped, “The America’s Cup is not about making money, it’s about spending money.” And the America’s Cup, in the best of times, is a hard sell when it comes to raising cash. After all, any boat owner will tell you that a boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money. The America’s Cup is that in spades.

It’s true in terms of regional economic impact, the America’s Cup is worth much more to San Diego than a Super Bowl or a World Series. But for the sailing community itself — other than a handful of individuals who reap some economic benefit — the only real reward is prestige, not money. For the sailing community, it means untold hours of work by volunteers, without whom the event could not be staged. And event organizers can only go to that well so often.

An America’s Cup challenge also requires several boatloads of cash just to leave the dock, let alone win. While the 1995 loss to the Kiwis brought to town more than double the money of a Super Bowl, today the cup can’t generate enough local interest to attempt to get it back. This is due in large part to the risk. To host the America’s Cup is not a matter of putting on a glitzy dog-and-pony show as is done to win the bid to host the Super Bowl or a national convention. For the America’s Cup, an entire racing syndicate must be funded to the tune of $50 million, give or take a few mill, then it must win.

Conner approached the San Diego YC, but there was little interest from the club, says Bill Trenkle, president and director of operations of Team Dennis Conner.

In 1998, “Dennis spoke to some of the board members at San Diego Yacht Club,” Trenkle says. “After the (three) defenses, it didn’t seem there was a lot of enthusiasm at the club to continue on in the America’s Cup game.”

Team DC represented San Diego-based Cortez Racing Association the last go-round, but to be competitive next year, it’s not practical to do so again. “They don’t have the private donor base that New York YC does,” Trenkle says. “It’s not what you call an old-money’ club,”

Conner and company were relatively pleased with their third-place finish in the challenger trials in 2000. But when the “Bees,” as Conner calls them — billionaires Larry Ellison, Craig McCaw and Switzerland’s Ernesto Berterelli — announced they would be backing challenges for 2003, “we knew it would be virtually impossible to win with a small-budget campaign like we had in 2000,” Trenkle says.

He explains that to raise the kind of money necessary requires the resources of a club with the stature and America’s Cup traditions of New York YC. Although the corporate sponsors, with their logos plastered all over the boats and sails, are more visible than private donors, private contributions to America’s Cup campaigns far outweigh corporate spending.

This is, in large part, because the event is its own worst enemy in terms of attracting commercial sponsors, which in return for their contributions require exposure, primarily on television. Sailboat racing, especially the two-boat match racing of the America’s Cup, is esoteric at best. It has a limited following because (a) it’s difficult to watch, (b) too often it’s not very exciting, and (c) most people can’t relate to it because they don’t sail.

ESPN had limited coverage during the 2000 event and ratings were lackluster. What’s more, recent statistics from the National Sporting Goods Association reveal that interest in sailing among the general U.S. population is declining.

Granted, Conner won in 1987 representing San Diego YC. So why can’t he do it again? Because when he won in ’87, it was with a much less expensive aluminum 12-meter boat, not the space-age carbon-fiber machines they are sailing today, which cost about 10 times as much. Conner spent roughly $12 million on a four-boat campaign to win back then. In today’s world, that would buy him an entry-level, one-boat campaign that would be lucky to advance to the semifinals of the challenger series.

Bottom line: In the America’s Cup, money talks, and no money is talking in San Diego.

“We realized that if we wanted to have a legitimate shot at winning, we were going to have to raise more money than we could raise from corporate America and a challenge through San Diego Yacht Club,” Trenkle says. “There hasn’t been a private donor base out of San Diego YC ever. Even in the ’87 challenge, the majority of the private donations did not come from San Diego Yacht Club members.”

And with Conner thinking this might be his last challenge, teaming up with the New York YC again looked like his most promising option, Trenkle adds, “which had an interesting ring to him anyway. After 20 years since we lost, he has a chance to bring it back. And we know the people at New York really want it back in the New York clubhouse.”

Will San Diego ever host the America’s Cup again?

No one wants to say never, but “for the foreseeable future, it’s gone,” admits Ken Bertino, commodore of San Diego YC. While Bertino points out that San Diego will be well represented by Team Dennis Conner, he echoes Trenkle’s comments with regard to funding a competitive challenge.

“We always will be a part of it, but I understand that the money is on the East Coast, and in order to be competitive, you’ve got to go where the money is,” Bertino says. “But if a Larry Ellison joins the yacht club, or a Qualcomm or biotech guy says, ‘Hey, let’s go do this,’ who knows?”

Bertino and others say they miss the cup, but they also “understand the complications and logistical nightmare that hosting, or even challenging for the cup, creates,” Bertino says. “I just want to see it get back to this country.”

If a group of wealthy individuals or San Diego-based corporations got together and were able to put together a strong budget, San Diego might be interested in doing it again, Trenkle adds.

“San Diego has been a part of the America’s Cup for a long time because of people like Lowell North, Malin Burnham and Dennis Conner, and (because of) San Diego YC challenging for the Cup in ’87 and hosting three defenses,” he says. “There is a lot of America’s Cup history coming out of San Diego, so it’s conceivable that there are enough people who still have a fond feeling for it that would like to see it back here. You just never know.”

Larry M. Edwards is a new-media consultant and the author of the Official Netscape Internet Business Starter Kit. He may be reached online at: larry@larryedwards.com and www.larryedwards.com.