Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves has returned after traveling to Dublin and Barcelona and his weekly appearance on “Real News with Rick Outzen.”
In Barcelona, the mayor was impressed with American Magic’s base camp.
“From a Pensacola level, what was really interesting is that was really the closest experience we’ve had to what a base would look like,” he said. They were pointing out some equipment as we toured the base, things that are coming back into the permanent building (at the Port of Pensacola) that are there right now. And so even from that standpoint, it was really fascinating to see.”
He added, “They have 160 people on site right now and all their families, many of them have been there for a year-plus. And I think I counted six or seven guys just working on one sail for one day. When we say the world’s most advanced sailing team, I mean it really speaks to that.”
Mayor Reeves likes American Magic’s chances of making the America’s Cup championship versus New Zealand.
“They’re in what’s called a double round robin. Basically everybody faces each other twice and all that’s happening right now. The worst team after those two rounds is out. So it’s looking like France or Switzerland at this point, he said.
The four remaining teams that will compete to battle New Zealand, he put in this order:
1. Italy
2. American Magic – Pensacola
3. Great Britain
4. France. S
Mayor Reeves said, “It’ll probably be that order. So if Italy, if it holds that way, Italy gets to pick who they go against in the semifinal – best out of nine, and then the other two teams face each other. Ultimately those four teams will go to two and then go to one.”
DOWNTOWN POST OFFICE
“They had briefed me that they were going to send that letter out a couple days in advance, so I knew, which I appreciate,” Reeves said, “But what I can tell you is they have run a couple of potential locations. I know one in particular needs some concessions from us, nothing major. I mean just from a loading zone type of standpoint, things like that.”
He explained, “Of course they don’t want to even go down that road if the city was going to say ‘no’ to it. And we certainly understand the value of that for our downtown businesses, and that we’re going to do everything within reason to accommodate for a downtown location.”
