America's Cup 2017 - Opinion: Bermuda could see the end of the Oracle v Team New Zealand rivalry

Oracle Team USA and Team New Zealand on the water during the challenger series (Photosport)
Oracle Team USA and Team New Zealand on the water during the challenger series (Photosport)

OPINION:  Some time in the next couple of weeks, Team New Zealand or Oracle Team USA will win the America's Cup in Bermuda. There will be big celebrations as the Kiwis either win back the Auld Mug, or the Americans toast a second successful defence.

For whoever doesn't get hold of the Cup it will be time to pick up the pieces of an unsuccessful campaign, but those broken parts may not get put back together. 

Despite a long and successful involvement in the event for both syndicates, there's a chance this could well be the last we see of Team NZ or Oracle in the America's Cup.

Even getting to the start line was a major achievement in itself for Team NZ. After the devastating loss to Oracle in San Francisco, some believed it was time for team boss Grant Dalton to step down. If he had that could well have been the end.

The America's Cup is no cheap exercise and Dalton's strength is his ability to fill the coffers. Some sponsors have been on the side of the boat since day one but there's a lot of other funding in the background that Dalton has pulled in himself.

And if he was to go, it may well follow. The loss of government funding didn't help - and there's no guarantee it will return in the future - and without Dalton's nous with the sponsors it could leave Team NZ short of the necessary money to mount a decent crack.

Would Dalton go? It's no secret the public backlash following the split with former skipper Dean Barker took its toll on the former ocean racer, maybe enough for him to sign off if the result goes against the Kiwis in Bermuda.

Dalton joined Team New Zealand after the disastrous defence of 2003 - the same regatta Larry Ellison's Oracle made its debut.

The American syndicate had two unsuccessful campaigns before knocking over Alinghi in a Deed of Gift challenge in 2010, then the defence in 2013.

Going off reported budgets of those efforts, you could conservatively estimate Ellison has sunk more than half a billion dollars into the Cup, and even for the seventh richest man on the planet that's a lot of money.

The fact the Kiwis made it through the group of the defender's chummy challengers will be grating Oracle.

Team NZ were the only group not to support Ellison and Sir Russell Coutts' blueprint for the future of the Cup, and those plans could go in the bin if NZ wins.

If Oracle were to fall to Team NZ in Bermuda, it would give the American a good out. It wouldn't be the first time a losing defender threw in the towel - Alinghi didn't return after they lost to Oracle in 2010 (though watch this space if Team NZ do get their hands on the Cup).

All this isn't to say it would be the end of the US's involvement in the America's Cup, or more importantly New Zealand's.

Team NZ was born from the demise of the Sir Michael Fay backed challenges that ended in 1992. But since then the game has changed, and getting back in could take a lot of time and even more money.

For both of these team, success in the coming weeks could also mean survival.

Greg Pearson is a sports reporter for Newshub.