Emirates Team New Zealand stand between Bermuda and the potential for 2017 to be chock-full of high-quality racing on the Great Sound for the 35th America’s Cup.

The New Zealanders, who are expected to be the strongest challengers to Team Oracle USA, have appealed to the America’s Cup arbitration panel over a decision that led to Auckland being removed from the equation as host for the final qualifying regatta. That now looks to be heading for Bermuda, in keeping with the majority of the teams’ wishes that the qualifiers and the America’s Cup Match be held at the same venue.

It is all part of the plan to cut costs that has so vexed the America’s Cup Event Authority (ACEA) and the teams, with a view to making sailing’s most spectacular event more affordable for all in future editions.

The first sacrifice that was required for this to happen was for the teams to accept a downsizing of the class of boat for the finals, despite some teams having already gone to great expense to prepare their 62ft wing-sailed foiling catamarans — AC62s. It is what has Luna Rossa at odds with the process and has led to the Italians threatening to withdraw from AC35, putting the first event of the America’s Cup World Series in doubt. That is meant to be held in Cagliari in June.

New Zealand, which has been opposed to Bermuda as a venue of any sort since the start, stood firmly in line behind Luna Rossa, but it is notable that the Italians refused to comment when contacted by The Royal Gazette yesterday.

However, in a statement on the Emirates Team New Zealand website, Grant Dalton, the CEO, said: “Emirates Team New Zealand have filed an application to the America’s Cup Arbitration Panel in the belief that ACEA has breached their signed agreement and protocol obligations by discarding Auckland.

“However, prior to any hearing, Emirates Team New Zealand will continue discussions with all teams and ACEA on the prospect of continuing to bring America’s Cup racing to Auckland.”

The prospect of New Zealand withdrawing appears slim, although it has been made clear that the level of government funding could be affected by Auckland losing out for the qualifiers.”

Mr Dalton added: “We are fighting to keep Auckland as a qualifier. This isn’t about government funding, this is not the end of Emirates Team New Zealand, it’s about enforcing a contract and bringing America’s Cup racing to New Zealand as agreed by ACEA.”

When Economic Development Minister Grant Gibbons spearheaded the drive to land Bermuda the America’s Cup, it was with a view to hosting the finals match as well as the potential of getting a qualifying event.

That had been achieved by December 2 in New York, where, weeks after the Island learnt that a World Series event will be sailed here from October 16 to 18 this year, Harvey Schiller, the commercial commissioner for the ACEA, made the big announcement.

Securing the final qualifiers as well, to be contested by the four leading teams from the World Series regattas, would be a bonus beyond all measure — and have local marinas stocked from early 2017 until mid-July when the fate of the “Auld Mug” will have been decided for another four years.

The venue decision is now in the hands of the ACEA, which oversaw the majority vote to change the boat class of choice for the finals — from 62ft to 48ft.

“The move to the new America’s Cup class is a major step forward for the America’s Cup,” Mr Schiller after the vote.

“Collectively, the teams have agreed current costs are neither justified, nor sustainable, and a majority have together taken a sensible course of action to cut costs. I believe this puts the America’s Cup on a firm foundation for today and for the future.”

Crucially, the new class will cost much less over the life of a campaign, with potential savings across design, build and operations, making it a revolutionary cost-saving measure for the sport in both the short and long term.

“The changes being made are to reduce the current costs and complexity, which are barriers to new teams wishing to enter the America’s Cup,” said Iain Percy, the team manager for Artemis Racing.

Looking towards the future, the ACEA believes the new America’s Cup class will put the event on a path towards economic sustainability. Numerous one-design components will focus the design effort on areas that have an impact on performance, cutting costs significantly, but not diminishing the design challenge.

“The America’s Cup, like Formula One, has to be a design race as well as a race on the water,” said Sir Ben Ainslie, the team principal at Ben Ainslie Racing. “That has always been part of the Cup’s appeal. That is what attracts some of the world’s best engineers — people like Adrian Newey, who has shown a real passion for the design challenge of the America’s Cup.”

Oracle Team USA skipper Jimmy Spithill said: “This wasn’t an easy process. The established teams, ourselves included, were well down the path of designing an AC62. But there is a bigger picture to consider. We needed to bring the costs down, but we had to respect the design component of the event, as that’s always been one of the biggest challenges in winning the America’s Cup.”