Remember when former
Mayor Gavin Newsom said “Who the heck needs the Olympics and the Super
Bowl when you’ve got the America’s Cup?”
The Cup may have been
pitched as the third-largest international sporting event in the world,
but with only four teams competing and significantly scaled back
economic impact projections, the Federal Aviation Administration hasn’t
even deemed the event worthy of the same airspace protections given to
every San Francisco Giants and 49ers game.
“There won’t be a
[temporary flight restriction] over the event,” FAA spokesman Lynn
Lunsford said in an email. “We will issue advisories to pilots.”
For
every major sporting event in a stadium, the FAA prohibits low-flying
aircraft from coming within three nautical miles of the venue. City
officials have been talking with the FAA for months, telling the federal
agency that they expect up to 100,000 spectators a day along the
waterfront for the final races in September, but to no avail.
“They
said even with that kind of attendance that wouldn’t in and of itself
justify flight restrictions unless there was a real safety and security
situation they could identify,” said Michael Martin, the city’s point
man on the Cup. “They told us they can put one in place very quickly if
they see there’s a safety or security reason that requires it.”
Martin
said other factors the FAA considers in issuing the restrictions are
how much attention is being paid to the event, terrorist threats and
even how important the attendees are (Sorry Larry Ellison, apparently
being a billionaire software mogul ain’t all it’s cracked up to be).
Once
it was clear that the FAA may not come through, the city turned to Plan
B. On Monday, the Board of Supervisor’s Land Use and Development
Committee will consider a city-sponsored ordinance to “prohibit the use
of aircraft, self-propelled, or buoyant objects to display any sign or
advertising device in the airspace” over the course area.
“It
sounds sort of ominous when you read it, but it’s something we try to
keep narrowly tailored,” Martin said. “It’s part of our running effort
to keep safety paramount.”
Though Martin says safety is priority
number one, the legislation is concerned with appearances first, stating
that aerial signs and towing banners would “undermine the viewing
experience” before getting to the “dangerous visual distractions” for
sailors.
Leading Cup critic Supervisor John Avalos says the
ordinance strikes him as an attempt by Ellison and his racing syndicate
to exercise further control over the event.
“It seems absurd to try to limit where spectators’ eyes go,” Avalos said.
Lunsford
said the FAA hasn’t had the opportunity to review the proposed
ordinance. Martin said the city felt it could make its own rules about
the airspace because Honolulu has a permanent ban on aerial advertising
that was upheld by courts in 2006.
This post has been updated to include the FAA’s response.
Article and Comments/Reaction: http://blog.sfgate.com
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