The cheerleaders of the America’s Cup have promised the yacht race will bring in more than $1 billion of economic activity to the region. But Bob Schwenke would be satisfied with just $25,000 of that windfall.
“It hasn’t created any economic activity for me yet, but it’s still a little bit early,” he told Katie Worth of the newspaper; The San Francisco Examiner.
Two years before the international yacht race is scheduled to set sail on San Francisco Bay, Schwenke has placed his boat and the rights to his slip at Pier 39 — the front row for the 2013 race — on Craigslist under the heading “LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.” He’s priced the two-bedroom, two-bath yacht and rights to the 60-foot slip at $259,950 — about $25,000 more than he thinks he’d get for it if the America’s Cup weren’t coming to town.
“There’s going to be some big money coming in — big money,” he said. “The America’s Cup is not a pauper’s race.”
Schwenke was one of four slip or boat owners trying to market their on-the-water property to America’s Cup aficionados on Craigslist last week. City officials say they’re hardly surprised the event is already attracting people and businesses trying to make a buck off of the upcoming event, which they say could attract as many as 5 million people to the Bay in the late summer of 2013 and bring in more than $1 billion to the local economy.
Entrepreneur Tim Ellis is also hoping to ride the America’s Cup wave. A friend of his owns a large yacht at Pier 39 and has asked Ellis, who has expertise in tourism, to help him lease it out for the event. Ellis has already reached out to destination management companies — a type of travel agent for the extremely rich.
But Ellis says it’s not just about making a buck off of the race.
“You stand on the back of this boat and you look straight out at Alcatraz, left to the Golden Gate Bridge, and right to the Bay Bridge,” he said. “So hopefully we’ll provide a service for people who are looking for something really special when they come to see the event.”