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(TOP) THE EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND AND THE ARTEMIS RACING TEAM DURING TEST RUNS THIS SUMMER IN SAN FRANCISCO (BOTTOM) ORACLE TEAM USA CRUISING IN THE SHADOW OF THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE AND GETTING AIRBORNE no boats, no clubhouse, and only four members had claimed the right, but Ellison sued, claiming his team should be the offcial challenger. After two years of complex legal wrangling, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Ellison, determining the Oracle team to be the challenger of record. Racing in a ninety-foot fxed-wing trimaran, Ellison's team also won handily on the water, beating Alinghi in two anticlimactic races by a margin of fve minutes and twenty-six seconds. Elevated by the win and the performance of his multi-hulled boat, Ellison was determined to bring the next America's Cup to his home city of San Francisco and take professional sailing into a new era. Ellison's plan to turn the America's Cup into a commercially viable televised event began with the realization that the Cup needed excitement. With the ability to modify the rules of the competition, Ellison and his team developed a plan to use uniform, high-speed boats that would race on tight courses on San Francisco Bay, bringing the action close to the shore. They also developed a new event, the America's Cup World Series, a series of lead-in races that it was hoped would raise public interest in the America's Cup and private interest from television networks and sponsors. The World Series races would be held across the globe and raced in smaller boats, AC45s, giving teams the opportunity to train with a fxed-wing system. But sporting events also need a stadium, and while the San Francisco waterfront was an attractive tourist destination, it was in no shape for spectator sports. The original plan called for spending an estimated $60 million to turn Piers 30-32 into spectator and operations facilities, but the estimated costs quickly ballooned to over $100 million. There were also legal troubles. A group calling itself Waterfront Watch led by the former president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors fled a lawsuit seeking a new environmental review of the America's Cup race. Soon Ellison decided to scale down his plans and ultimately negotiated an agreement in which the city would pay less than $20 million for the repairs and continue to own the piers.