In his SFGate column today, Chuck Nevius calls out boating enthusiast Larry Ellison and the BMW Oracle sailing team for making such a stink about which piers on the Eastern waterfront they'll get if they pick San Francisco for the America's Cup.

As we pointed out on Tuesday, team negotiator Stephen Barclay wants to get his hands on Pier 50 near AT&T park and has apparently been trying to keep Ellison from sitting down with Mayor Newsom. So Nevius goes straight for the CEO's ego (albeit kind of gently) saying:

Ellison is one of the wealthiest, most powerful and iron-willed people in the world. Barclay is reported to be a real hardball guy. But I have trouble picturing the scenario where Ellison, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Oracle, reaches for the phone and Barclay says, "Nope, I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Larry."

With that out of the way, he points out that no one who can afford to a boat that costs "$10 million - just to put it in the water" can really be all that concerned about the dollars. "This may be about a bunch of billionaires racing impractical boats with crazy space-age technology," Nevius writes, "but at the end of the day, there's a competition, a score and a winner. It only makes sense to stage that in the best possible place for the sport."

The Bay is a no-brainer then: boats can parade for cameras in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, people can watch from the waterfront and everyone is going to love Larry's big boat, obviously. Besides, does anyone ever really get excited about Rhode Island?

[SFGate]