Malaga loses its bid to host the America's Cup 2024

A great disappointment for Malaga: the city has lost its bid to host the America’s Cup in 2024. The port authorities in Barcelona notified their counterparts in Malaga on Monday morning, 28 March, that their city has been selected to host the sailing event, and said the decision would be officially announced later.

In a radio interview earlier, Barcelona’s Councillor for Business and Work, Roger Torrent, said the America’s Cup will bring millions of euros to the city and will be tremendous publicity for Barcelona and Catalonia all round the world.

Barcelona’s bid to host the event had the support of the Generalitat, the Barcelona provincial council and the port, although the government will also be involved in the organisation of this, one of the most popular nautical events in the world.

Although Malaga had been one of the favourites, ahead of Cork and Jeddah, the involvement of major Catalonian businesses in sponsoring the event, together with institutional support and the availability of ready-made port infrastructure carried more weight in the decision.

Malaga’s lack of facilities and doubts about the financing and how long it would take to make the necessary modifications to the port, were negative factors which resulted in it losing out on this occasion.