America's Cup Sails Ahead — Minus a Giant Floating TV Screen

Supes bow to swimmers' concerns but reject environmental challenge
By: John Upton

Plans to turn San Francisco’s Aquatic Park into a giant sports lounge during America’s Cup races were scaled back Tuesday, with event organizers agreeing to dump their proposal to anchor a giant floating television screen in the normally tranquil Aquatic Park cove.

The change in plans helped convince the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Tuesday to reject an appeal filed by neighborhood and environmental groups, who claimed that measures included in an environmental impact report dealing with the event would fail to protect air and water quality.

Plans to float the 44-foot-wide screen on a 140-foot barge to broadcast the catamaran races this year and next sparked outrage among members of the 134-year-old Dolphin Swimming and Boating Club. Club members said the screen could tip over, cause a diesel fuel spill and get in the way of their coveted recreational traditions.

Swimmers were so enraged by the TV screen proposal, and by planned restrictions on access to Aquatic Park cove during events, that they had threatened to swim to the center of the cove during races — a protest they dubbed Occupy the Bay — potentially getting in the way of sailors and generally causing havoc.

Club members vigorously repeated their complaints during a San Francisco Board of Supervisors environmental appeal hearing Tuesday evening, leading board President David Chiu, whose district includes Aquatic Park, to ask the America’s Cup Event Authority if it would consider nixing the plans for the floating screen.

“We have heard the concerns of the community,” Mary Murphy, a lawyer representing the event authority, replied.

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“The event authority is prepared to commit this evening to amend all of its plans and permit applications with all regulatory authorities to eliminate the Jumbotron in the water,” Murphy said. “Instead, we will explore, as has been suggested by some of the speakers here this evening, a land-based Jumbotron.”

Club members who were packed into the hearing room applauded the pledge.

Despite lingering concerns from organizations including the Sierra Club, the Telegraph Hill Dwellers, San Francisco Tomorrow, the Golden Gate Audubon Society and Waterfront Watch about the environmental effects of the regatta, the supervisors voted unanimously to reject the appeals and certify the environmental impact report.

“Quite frankly, if the event authority had not taken that out of the equation, I would not be supporting the EIR,” Supervisor David Campos said, referring to the television screen, before casting his vote.

The vote cleared the path for waterfront construction associated with the regatta to begin immediately. That includes the construction of a new cruise terminal, which will serve temporarily as the America’s Cup Village, and the replacement of aging piers.

Campos and Supervisor John Avalos said the appeal hearing highlighted growing financial risks for the city associated with the regatta, with visitor projection numbers quickly tumbling.

The number of spectator boats projected to take to the bay during feature races next year, for example, has tumbled to 800, from initial estimates of 2,200.

The city is relying on an influx of visitors to provide a tax boost to help meet the costs of hosting the regatta.

“Overall, I’m concerned about costs,” Avalos said.

Supervisors are scheduled to vote on financial aspects of the regatta during a Feb. 14 hearing.

Thomas Lippe, a lawyer representing all of the groups in their appeal against the environmental report, said Tuesday evening that the groups would wait until after that hearing to decide whether to take their concerns to the courts.