The America's Cup is finalizing its preparations to be held in Barcelona. The competition will take place in the city's waters from late August to October, but it aspires for its legacy to go beyond this date and extend further, both from a tangible and intangible point of view. This legacy will be the focus of the fourth and last session of the cycle Todo lo que quieres saber de la Copa del América (Everything you want to know about the America's Cup), with which The New Barcelona Post brings the competition closer to the public.
The session, for which free ticket reservation is required, will take place on Wednesday, July 17, at 6:30 p.m., again, at the Old Estrella Damm Factory. The cycle is sponsored by the Port de Barcelona, the Barcelona City Council, Estrella Damm, and the Fundació Barcelona Capital Nàutica, in addition to the collaboration of Giny and Must Media Group.
Under the motto Navigating towards the future: the legacy of the America's Cup, the last session of the cycle will address the legacy of the competition with the president of the Port de Barcelona, Lluís Salvadó; the municipal manager of the City Council, Albert Dalmau; the general director of Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM), Marta Labata; the head of Innovation of the Port de Barcelona, Emma Cobos, and the general director of the Fundació Barcelona Capital Nàutica, Ignasi Armengol. Olympic medalist Mónica Azón, coach of the Sail Team BCN women's team that will compete in the first women's regatta in the history of the America's Cup, will also participate. On this occasion, the meeting will be moderated by journalist Maria Xinxó.
All of them will address the legacy that the competition will leave in Barcelona and its surroundings from different perspectives, ranging from urban transformations to the promotion of sailing and nautical sports, including the boost to the blue economy and new services that have accelerated their implementation with the competition, such as the new nautical bus that will connect Drassanes with Moll de Llevant starting this week.
The improvements and transformations that the regatta has expedited in the city, especially on its coastline, amount to dozens of actions of various sizes, from small restaurants to the city's largest beach club and port infrastructures. The president of the Port and its head of Innovation will address the transformation that the Barcelona port has experienced in recent months, in already planned improvements that have been accelerated by the competition.
The Port Vell has been one of the major focuses of reform, with about twenty actions that have involved an investment of 120 million euros, coming from both the public and private sectors. The rambla of the Nova Bocana, the future new Fish Market, the conversion of old sheds into blue economy hub, the reform of the Aquàrium and the imminent opening of the Time Out Market are some of the initiatives propelled by the competition and that will remain in the city as part of its legacy.
The transformation of the city's port coastline does not end here: the Port Olímpic has stepped on the accelerator of its opening to the public with the celebration of the regatta, becoming a gastronomy hub and blue economy hub, in a transformation executed by B:SM on behalf of the City Council. And it is that the consistory, also promoter of the Cultural Regatta program, is determined that the impact of the America's Cup endures in the city, something it also works on from the Fundació Barcelona Capital Nàutica.
Formed by the City Council, the Port, Fira de Barcelona and the Cambra de Comerç, the entity promotes multiple initiatives to translate the competition into a permanent legacy for the city, which include the promotion of nautical sports, and the advance towards decarbonization, which materializes with projects such as 100% electric recreational boats. The foundation's initiatives go further and also include the promotion of the Catalan women's foil team, coinciding with the first women's regatta in the history of the America's Cup.
The legacy that the regatta will leave in the city will be the focus of the last session of the cycle after its first sessions addressed the history and repercussion of the event; the functioning and rules of the game of the competition, and the reasons why the regatta is considered a benchmark in innovation, in three meetings available on Youtube and on Spotify and aimed at bringing the competition closer to the public.