Title Sponsor Leaves World Match Racing Tour Finale

Published on January 14th, 2016

The World Match Racing Tour, which will transition to catamaran racing in 2016, may be impacted with news that its final event has lost its title sponsor. The Stena Match Cup Sweden, which is to conclude the 2016 season in July, will be without Swedish company Stena which has terminated their agreement after five years as title sponsor. Stena was believed to have been contributing at least SEK 6 million (701,477.34 USD) to the event.

“It is important money, but we can choose to take in several smaller partners instead of a great one,” notes Jan Torstensson, President of Brandspot, an organizer of the event. “Then we can have a discussion with existing sponsors as the rights become available, so there are many ways to solve the short term. In the long term it is important to find a partner who is as dedicated as Stena has been.”

The Championship events of this season, which will form a short, four month season, will together create a total prize purse of over $2 million U.S.D. to the teams.

The 2016 short season Championship Events will be hosted at the venues and on the dates listed:
– Fremantle, Perth, Australia, March 2nd-7th
– Long Beach, Los Angeles, USA, April 5th-10th
– Undisclosed Venue, April 18th-23rd (TBC)
– Copenhagen, Denmark, May 9th-14th
– Newport, RI, USA, May 31st-June 4th
– World Championship Finals, Marstrand, Sweden, July 4th-9th