After closing its doors nine years ago, the building that housed the Imax cinema in Barcelona's Port Vell has reopened as the official dissemination center for the America's Cup, which will be held next year in the waters of the Catalan capital.
The America's Cup Experience has a part open to the general public, with free access, which allows visitors to become familiar with the competition considered the third most followed sporting event, after the Olympic Games and the World Cup, in the world.
The visit to the America's Cup Experience is completed with a paid area (general admission costs 15 euros) in which, through an immersive experience, the spectator is fully immersed in the America's Cup in a 360 sensory spectacle. degrees on a 128 square meter screen and in a room that projects effects of wind and water.
In this payment area there is also a multimedia gallery with more than 100 monitors of different formats, synchronized with each other and suspended from the wall and ceiling, which narrate the evolution of one of the oldest competitions in the world, whose origins date back to date back to the year 1851 and that in Barcelona will live its 37th edition next year.
Another of the attractions of the visit is the projection of the film One Hell of a Battle (A hellish battle), which narrates all the emotions of the competition. The film is offered in the auditorium (the main room of the old IMAX cinema), which has a capacity of 425 spectators and on a large-format screen, the second largest in Europe, with 611 square meters, state-of-the-art 4k technology, a brightness of 50,000 lumens and the most advanced surround sound systems.
The America's Cup outreach center will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. (hours may be shortened in winter) until at least May 2025, six months after the end of the competition and the date it ends the concession of this space, in which, if the forecasts advanced a few months ago are fulfilled, a second headquarters of the Gran Teatro del Liceo, the Liceu Mar, could be installed.
During the time it will remain open, the promoters of the America's Cup Experience expect some million people to pass through the free area and 1.2 million visitors through the paid area.
This will be the first center for the dissemination of the Copa del América. Located in the old Imax building, 27 meters high, it will have an area of 2,250 square meters.
The concession was granted by the Board of Directors of the Port of Barcelona, on March 30 to the company America's Club House S.L. (linked to Dortoka Disseny S.L.), and is valid until May 25, 2025, extendable for one more year. The adaptation of this space and the provision of the exhibition elements has required a total investment of 7 million euros that has been executed in record time, as is the norm for all the projects that the celebration of the 2024 America's Cup has accelerated in the port of Barcelona.
The Barcelona Olympic medalist Natalia Vía Dufresne has led the presentation ceremony, in which Xavier Andrades, one of the partners of the concessionary company, has also intervened.
Soon, from October 5th, some navigation simulators will also be available (upon payment of 8 euros) in an AC75, the Formula 1 sailboats that will compete in Barcelona. There will be two simulators designed specifically for the America's Cup Experience, with capacity for 10 people each.
The America's Cup Experience also has an official Cup souvenir shop and two gastronomic spaces open to the city. One of them, the Sailor's Cove at the foot of the sea, is already open. And on September 12, the Vraba Restaurant will begin its voyage, a signature cuisine space signed by chef Albert Ventura.
