The America’s Cup is a sporting event that, despite its global impact, continues to be largely unknown to many Barcelonans. Although it will be held in the Catalan capital between August and October of next year, this summer it will already be possible to enjoy the training sessions of the six participating teams, who will take the pulse of the waves and the wind in Barcelona, ​​and the preliminary regattas; one, in September, in Vilanova i la Geltrú. And also in the broadcast center that will open in the Imax. The port has given it the green light and has granted a concession to convert this building, closed since 2014, into the America’s Cup Experience, which is expected to open to the public this summer.
The Board of Directors of the Port Authority has authorized AC House SL, a company linked to Dortoka Disseny SL, to exploit a surface area of ​​2,250 square meters in this space on the Espanya quay, in Port Vell, until July 31, 2025. extendable. Therefore, it will be valid several months after the end of the competition, as requested by its promoters, who intend to keep the center open beyond the nautical celebration.
The concessionaire must take charge of adapting the building, which was inaugurated in 1995 and despite having been closed for almost a decade, it remains in good condition. The America’s Cup Experience will have different spaces, all of them dedicated to explaining the event that, after the Olympic Games and the Soccer World Cup, is the one with the greatest media coverage in the world, largely thanks to the spectacular images of the boats involved, which seem to fly over the sea. There will be exhibitions on the long history of the event, which began in 1851, and its evolution in recent times, marked by the weight of technology applied to boats, which turns them into futuristic models. There will be audiovisual and immersive content in the theater of the complex. Also sale of merchandising.
If they occur, the extensions of the period of the concession of the America’s Cup Experience beyond the summer of 2025 will not affect the Liceu Mar project, planned in the place now occupied by the Imax building. Port sources recall that for this initiative a new concession must be granted to the Gran Teatre, which plans to tear down the current building and build a new one, for which it is planned to call a contest of ideas. The intention of this musical institution is to be a reference space that complements the activity carried out at its headquarters on La Rambla, especially chamber opera, and with a new center that relates all areas of creation (composition, dramaturgy , stage direction…).
