The America’s Cup, the oldest international sporting trophy, is entering a new phase of shared governance with the formation of the America’s Cup Partnership (ACP).
The agreement — formalised today (15 October 2025) — has been reached between Defender Emirates Team New Zealand, representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, and Challenger of Record Athena Racing, representing the Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd.
This marks the first time in the 174-year history of the competition that teams have created a joint governance and commercial framework to manage the event on a long-term basis. The agreement was finalised in New York following the completion of the remaining terms for the establishment of the partnership.
Under the new structure, a governance board will be formed, with both teams holding seats. The board will oversee an independent management team responsible for the event’s commercial operations, investment planning, and continued technical innovation. The America’s Cup will become a biennial competition, with the ACP becoming operational on 1 November 2025.
ACP will function as a central consortium to manage all aspects of the event, including planning, organisation, and commercial activities. It will oversee rights, contracts, revenues, assets, and personnel in accordance with the Deed of Gift and the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup Protocol.
The news comes after new regulations for the America’s Cup were revealed in August 2025.
The changes will apply when the 38th edition takes place in Naples, Italy, in July 2027. Crews will have five members, including at least one woman, with increased functionality of the boat coming from battery power. Under revised nationality rules, at least two crew members, plus the female sailor, must be nationals of the team’s country.
The road to the announcement has been a rocky one. First off the block, Athena Racing, part of Brit Sir Ben Ainslie’s empire, disseminated a statement in May 2025 to raise the issue of whether a fair sporting protocol is being negotiated for the 38th America’s Cup. The statement accused both Team New Zealand (TNZ) and the government of Italy of lacking transparency when it comes to the agreement to use Naples as the host venue, and of making premature announcements.
Swiftly following Athena’s statement, American Magic weighed in, saying it’s found itself at a ‘crossroads’. The US-based team is urging the defender — Team New Zealand — “to work in good faith with the Challenger of Record [Athena Racing] to restore the elements of fair competition, transparency, and respect for all sailors, globally, who are ultimately the beneficiaries of this time-honoured trust.”
And then came the rebuttal from TNZ. It says it has been ‘working closely and positively with all teams on moving the America’s Cup to a new collaborative partnership and structure’ and goes on to talk around strengthening the future of the cup for the benefit of the event and ‘all current and future teams’.
In April 2025, Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos Britannia team confirmed it will not compete in the 38th America’s Cup, following the conclusion of a ‘protracted negotiation’ with Athena Racing – the team of Ineos’ former skipper Sir Ben Ainslie.
Just a week later, Switzerland’s Alinghi Red Bull Racing announced it was terminating its America’s Cup campaign.
Speaking about the new governance structure, Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton says: “The America’s Cup is the pinnacle of sailing with innovation and technology in its DNA for 174 years, but it has long been managed on an event-by-event basis without a structure to plan for the long-term. There is a huge amount of unrealised valuable IP and commercial value that is tied up in the technology of the teams as well as the event.
“As other highly successful sports over the past decade have demonstrated, we believe that by partnering with our fellow teams to establish a more permanent governance and commercial organisation, we will collectively realise the incredible global growth and popularity that the America’s Cup and its fans deserve.
“The success of the establishment of the ACP is due to a bold combined vision as well as considerable concessions by all parties to get this across the line for the greater good of the sport and the event. Fans should expect more racing, innovative formats, more continuity in the teams, and even more competitive action between the most technologically advanced boats in the world, because that is what the ACP intends to deliver.”
Athena Racing CEO and team principal Sir Ben Ainslie adds: “The formation of ACP is a truly historic moment for the America’s Cup and has taken 12 months and cross-team collaboration to put in place. For the first time, teams are uniting not just as rivals on the water, but as shared stakeholders in its future. This collective approach enables us to realise the cup’s global commercial potential while protecting its unique heritage. It marks the start of an exciting new era, not just for the teams, but for fans, partners and the sport of sailing.”
The initial entry period for teams to join the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup in Naples and become part of the partnership’s governance will close on 31 October 2025. The partnership will then begin operations the following day, with work continuing on asset transfers, committee formation, and staff appointments. Planning is also underway for the Bagnoli event site in Naples and for preliminary regatta venues scheduled for 2026 and 2027.
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