Gilmour pours cold water on Louis Vuitton World Series

10:23 PM Wed 23 Sep 2009 GMT

'Peter Gilmour - new acting President of the World Match Racing Tour, has taken a hard line against the fledgling Louis Vuitton World Series. - Copyright Dan Ljungsrik' Monsoon Cup &copy Click Here to view large photo

In an interview with ValenciaSailing.com, the new head of the World Match Racing Tour, Peter Gilmour, has revealed that the WMRT have the rights to use of 'World' in their Championship title as regards matchracing, and that any new event pitched at the professional level of the sport would require the sanction of ProMatch Tour Ltd. It is believed that these rights stem from an agreement signed between the organisation and the Intrenational Sailing Federation in 2006.

Valencia Sailing: You definitely have ambitious goals about the future. Do you think that match racing can become a mainstream sport? How can you make it more accessible to the general, non-sailing public?

Peter Gilmour: I do think it can be more popular. First of all, it will require a deep and committed investment to enhance the product of what we already have. You need to build a franchise of the World Match Racing Tour into something of significant value to each of the franchisees, to each of the events. If we can build that up, over time it will become significantly more mainstream. Take for example the America's Cup. In 1983 it was just a small regatta off Newport, Rhode Island and it grew to a point that it charged tens of millions of dollars for television rights, sponsorship and so forth in 2007 in Valencia. Nobody would have believed that 25 years ago and I think it just needs a little bit of that same style of thinking. This is the second level down, the second main event of match racing in the world and certainly has a great opportunity to grow and expand itself.

Valencia Sailing: This is, more or less, the same message Louis Vuitton and the World Sailing Team Association wanted to convey in their presentation in Paris 2 weeks ago. They want to build a top-tier professional match-racing series around the world. They call it the LV World Series and even the format is quite similar, since teams race in boats provided by the organization. Can you comment on that?

Peter Gilmour: The situation with the LV Series is, in our opinion, very clear. Essentially, the exclusive rights to use the word 'World' and be the premier match racing series or tour in the world, outside of the America's Cup, have been given to ProMatch Tour Ltd. This is very clear and unequivocal. Obviously, the LV proposed series got going without consideration for that and they didn't even talk to ISAF beforehand. I understand ISAF has written and asked them not to proceed using the words 'World Series' and they haven't received any approval. We plan to meet with Louis Vuitton and the WSTA people in about a week's time and it really comes down to our right to sanction them, if we so wish. That's really pretty much where the situation is. We haven't received anything from them, no information whatsoever. Right now it's wait and see.

For the full interview click here

by ValenciaSailing

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