The two tragedies of the America's Cup: the schedule and the milestone!
Just as the European Cup was about to begin and the European warlords were fighting each other to a standstill, the 2024 America's Cup quietly opened a few days ago.
Because it is so quiet, many domestic media are promoting the America's Cup. "Compared to the European Cup, which is very 'hellish' for Chinese fans, the America's Cup match time is obviously much friendlier, and most of the matches are concentrated in the morning and afternoon of Beijing time."
But even so, there are very few fans around me who watch the Copa America live. It’s not that the Copa America is not interesting, but it’s because fans are also human beings. They also have to work and sleep. Their energy is limited and they can’t focus on one thing while neglecting another.
Photo, on July 10, 2021 local time, Argentina player Messi kissed the championship trophy to celebrate his victory.
On the same day, in the final of the 2021 America's Cup held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Argentina defeated Brazil 1-0 to win the championship.
Since the beginning of the year, all major media have been promoting the European Cup, but there has been no news about the America's Cup. So many people only realized that the America's Cup had started after seeing the news that Messi appeared in the America's Cup.
The Copa America starts on June 21, Beijing time, and ends at 08:00 am on July 15, while the European Cup starts on June 15, Beijing time, and ends at 03:00 am on July 15. In other words, the European Cup and the Copa America not only overlap for 24 days, but the final is only a few hours apart. For a fan, this seemingly wonderful football feast has actually become a difficult choice - in extreme cases, from June 21 to the end of the European Cup group stage on June 27, if a fan wants to watch both the European Cup and the Copa America and does not want to miss any game, then he has to watch at least six games a day, except for the time from 2 pm to 8 pm when he can sleep, and the rest of the time has to be staring at the screen. On the day of the final, a fan's schedule will be to stay up all night to watch the World Cup, if there is overtime, there will be penalties, and then watch the awards ceremony after the game, which will be around 7 o'clock. I was already so sleepy that I could hardly open my eyes, but there was still the America's Cup final to go.
So the America's Cup does have a bit of a "schedule tragedy" - for fans in China and around the world, it seems that they have to choose between the European Cup and the America's Cup, but obviously most people will choose the former in most competitions.
The game schedule is not well arranged, and the venue is also very troublesome. For the players participating in the America's Cup, they can feel the "milestone sadness" from the process of participating in the America's Cup.
The Copa America was originally to be held by Ecuador, but in November 2022, Ecuador gave up hosting the event. On January 27, 2023, due to the new strategic partnership between CONMEBOL and CONCACAF, the United States took over the hosting rights. This is the second time the United States has hosted the Copa America after the Centennial Copa America in 2016, and it is also seen as a prelude to the United States hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup together with Canada and Mexico.
Perhaps in order to fully demonstrate the advantages of domestic sports venue resources, this America's Cup is scheduled to be held in 14 cities across the United States. Each city will host 1 to 3 games - 14 stadiums distributed in 10 states on the east coast, midland and west coast of the United States will be used as competition venues.
There are 16 teams in total, and the tournaments are held in 14 cities. Most teams have to accept the arrangement of "flying performances" across the United States. For example, Argentina's three group matches will be played from the opening game in Atlanta to New York and then to Miami. Some media people joked that "the main point is to get both good results and airline mileage points."