Giant Jumbotron Axed from America's Cup Plans

The America's Cup international yachting race will grace San Francisco Bay sometime in 2013 -- minus a giant floating television screen on which to view the action.

The America's Cup Jumbotron was nixed from event plans on Tuesday by organizers, who also say that the number of spectator boats expected for the event has dipped by nearly two-thirds, according to the Bay Citizen.

The event organizers scaled back their plans in order to win approval from the Board of Supervisors, which heard an environmental appeal on the plan on Tuesday night. The appeal came from neighbors like the swimmers who use Aquatic Park near Fisherman's Wharf, who warned that if the 44-foot-wide television screen was indeed perched on a 140-foot barge near the Dolphin Swimming and Boating Club, they would swim into the bay and block the racing boats, the Bay Citizen reported.

Construction of a new cruise terminal and replacing some of the waterfront's aging piers was also approved on Tuesday.