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The America's Cup has always been this way--a battle of money and technology as much as sailing skill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America%27s_Cup

It's not a normal sporting competition the way we think of sport today--a contest conducted by standard rules using regulated equipment under the auspices of a neutral governing body. The governing body of an America's Cup race is the yacht club that holds the cup. The rules are whatever they say they are.

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It had previously been held as a competition between nations and with some level of integrity. This Oracle campaign and the previous Alinghi campaign have been the most self-serving in the America's Cup 150 years of history.

Money has been a part of the cup, sure, but making it so you can't win without dropping half a billion is a new low.

I'm not sure that's true - didn't some previous incumbents tweak the rules to require challengers to sail their boats on the open ocean from their home clubs, while the Rhode Island based boats could be built much lighter since they didn't need to be trans-ocean-capable?

I think this particular race has a century-long history of being all about the defender writing their own rulebook…

I wonder if that means it belongs on the list of nomics [0] maintained on Wikipedia.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomic

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