[1] This delay was to avoid conflicting with the 1997/98 Whitbread Round the World Race and give Auckland the time to build the necessary infrastructure to host the cup.

A strong two boat challenge led by Patrizio Bertelli and sponsored by Prada, the team was formed in 1997 and became an early favourite in Auckland.

The crew included Matteo Plazzi, Alan Smith,[3] Giuseppe Brizzi,[4] Pietro D'Alì, Simone de Mari, mid-bowman Max Sirena and Torben Grael.

The team included tactician John Kostecki, navigator Terry Hutchinson, Lexi Gahagan, Billy Bates, Curtis Blewett, Josh Belsky, Gavin Brady, Sean Clarkson, Justin Clougher, Kevin Hall, Mike Howard, Pieter van Nieuwenhuyzen,[7] Morgan Larson, David McClintock, Jim Nicholas, Carter Perrin, Greg Prussia, Russ Silvestri, Ralf Steitz, Phil Trinter, Morgan Trubovich, Matt Welling and Ray Davies.

The crew included Chris Larson,[9] Cameron Dunn,[10] Brian MacInnes,[11] Marco Constant,[7] and John Bertrand.

The crew included Buddy Melges, Kelvin Harrap, David Armitage, Carl Barkow, Liz Baylis, Ben Beer, Jamie Boeckel, Greg Burrell, Merritt Carey, Lisa Charles, Tom Faire, Daniel Fong, Scott Gregory, Stephen Gruver, Peter Heck, Al Palewicz, Katie Pettibone, Hal Sears, John Spence, Latimer Spinney, John Sweeney, Tucker Thompson, Brad Webb, Jon Ziskind,[13] Jeff Madrigali, David Stevenson and Leslie Egnot.

Skippered by Pedro Campos, as in 1992 and 1995, the team added Olympic medal winning sailor Luis Doreste to the crew in 2000.

Before the regatta a crew member, Martin Wizner, died almost instantly when he was hit in the head by a broken piece of equipment.

[16] Led by experienced French campaigner Marc Pajot and with German Jochen Schümann as helmsman, the FAST 2000 team was the countries first America's Cup challenge.

[18][19] Le Defi Bouygues Telecom Transiciel was a one boat challenge from France led by Syndicate head Luc Gelluseau and operations manager Pierre Mas.

[23][24][17] Representing the New York Yacht Club, the challenger of record, Young America built on John Marshall's PACT '95 syndicate.

The young crew was led by James Spithill, then just 19, and included Wade Morgan, Joey Newton,[11] and Andy Fethers.