Having watched about the last half of the Cup coverage I have to agree that Larry Ellison's money came into play. It was said during the coverage that the NZ Team was basically a National Team, and the bulk of their financing came from the Government, not from private sources, and that it was limited to a finite amount. The commentators also asked the question about the nationality of the teams, and one stated that in his opinion there should be a requirement for all team members to have origin or citizenship to the country they represent - the USA Team should be made up of US born or naturalized citizens, much like the Olympics. Not sure that's the right approach, but I do know that from my perspective the last eight races were phenomenal! I can understand that the interpretation from NZ would be totally different.