The infamous financial crisis in Europe seems to have just hit its latest victim. Apparently, being one of the world’s most prestigious luxury groups doesn’t shield you the consequences of the brutal economic downturn and even the most powerful companies have to go through the forced belt tightening.
According to unconfirmed reports from sources that are deemed to be reliable, the board of Louis Vuitton has been frantically working during the Easter week and the mood was far from festive. According to the same sources, the board unanimously decided to put an immediate end to all sponsorship the French company has in the sport of sailing, unfortunately, including the famous Louis Vuitton Cup. It’s not clear though yet, whether this would impact the upcoming edition of the Challenger Selection Series, initially scheduled to start three months form now, on July 4th. One option under consideration is to advance the Louis Vuitton Cup by at least a month to mid-May to early June and bring down its duration to no more than a month by compacting the racing schedule, but this is still unconfirmed.
This is a breaking, developing story that has just been reported by our “spies”, infiltrated in the upper echelons of the sport of sailing. We are working on getting more information, later on today, Monday, April 1st.