Norbert Bajurin, the Commodore Room at the Golden Gate Yacht Club, has the perfect spot picked out for the America's Cup trophy.

Bajurin, staff commodore of the club, picked the spot three years ago, after his club partnered with San Francisco software mogul Larry Ellison to challenge for the oldest trophy in sports.

Bajurin has been waiting patiently ever since for his team, now called BMW Oracle Racing, to win the America's Cup and bring it back home. But as of late, Bajurin is beginning to wonder if the Cup ever will come to San Francisco Bay, his team's home base.

Even if Ellison's team wins the Cup while representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club, the tradition of the winning team automatically hosting the subsequent competition may be a thing of the past.

What happens if BMW Oracle does win the America's Cup in 2007? Will the Cup come back home to the San Francisco Bay? Or will Larry Ellison and the other sponsors put the right to host the America's Cup out for bid?

The decision will not be Ellison's alone. Although San Francisco based Ellison originally bankrolled the team with his personal money, the team now has a dozen or so other sponsors, many headquartered in Europe. The America's Cup event and the challenging teams have gone global.

Case in point: BMW Oracle Racing no longer flies the American flag from its backstay when it heads out to the race course.

"Where would the next America's Cup be sailed if we win?" says Chris Dickson, CEO of BMW Oracle Racing. "We'd have to take things one step at a time. One of the reasons for this format (the Acts) is a desire by Larry Ellison and Ernesto Bertarelli to take this to more places".

"When we are successful in winning we will sit down with our partners and Larry Ellison and talk about what we will do to continue the game. It will be in the same vein, more events, more countries. We will take it to more people and continue the growth of this sport. We want to continue the America's Cup on a global platform."