With all the formality deserving of the oldest international sporting trophy, America's Cup point man Russell Coutts confirmed yesterday's rumors when he sent a letter to Mayor Ed Lee letting him know San Francisco was no longer in the running for the 35th edition of the boat race for the insanely rich.

"Given the tight timeline and demands from prospective teams to confirm the final venue, it has been necessary to continue reducing the shortlist of candidate cities," Coutts wrote. "We have therefore taken the difficult decision to no longer consider San Francisco as a possible candidate to host AC35."

According to the Chronicle, the letter offers no explanation for the diss, although it seems obvious that Mayor Lee's most recent mandates like forcing the Cup to pay rent on the piers and pay prevailing union wages for construction work were dealbreakers for Coutts and Larry Ellison.

The letter did, however, say race organizers would be open to hosting the 36th America's Cup here, in the far-off-distant future of 2021 or so. (Also, a bit of shade thrown at the other teams there, as the winner of the Cup gets to decide the next locale.) On the other hand, Coutts' letter did mention the possibility of hosting one of the smaller lead-up World Series races here, so maybe we can get one final use out of any remaining A-Cup infrastructure.

Anyway, Mayor Lee doesn't seem too down about it. As he aw-shucks'ed to the Chronicle: "I think all we can do is be proud of the fact that we hosted a really great event and that we were willing to do it again in a more rational way."

Previously: San Francisco Likely Eliminated As Potential Host For Next America's Cup
[Chron]