Just six years after SailGP hit the water it generated more than US$200 million in revenue and attracted an average 18 million television viewers per race.
Russell Coutts and SailGP co-founder Larry Ellison successfully turned an exclusive pastime/recreational sport, into a live-audience and media phenomena, convincing a mainly non-sailing audience that watching competitive, high speed sailing was worth spending their leisure time on.
“To be straight, we weren’t sure that we could commercially ticket this product from day one,” Russell Coutts, SailGP’s co-founder and CEO, told Paul McNamara of South China Morning Post, ahead of the circuit’s first Hong Kong stop next January.
SailGP’s 2019 launch season featured six teams and just five race weekends. In 2027, 14 boats will compete over 13 grands prix, and Coutts wants to expand to 20 events with regular calendar dates to build fan loyalty and the athletes to ‘grow into household names’.
All 13 existing teams have entered private ownership, with New Zealand’s Black Foils the last to be sold back in June when MSP Sports Capital paid more than US$60 million for a majority stake. More than three times the US$20 million that it cost Ben Ainslie and business partner Chris Bake for a majority slice of the TeamGB boat five years ago.
In this podcast dominated media world, all commercially successful events need to build an online presence, expanding and building on the live feature events . . . some even achieving more media impact than the original series that spawned them.
To that end the SailGP produced behind-the-scenes documentary, Racing on the Edge, will expand with a new eight-part docuseries, produced by Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, part-owners of Australia’s Bonds Flying Roos team, set to air on Disney Plus next year.
The 2027 season will begin in spectacular style as SailGP makes its debut in Hong Kong on 23-24 January 2027 for the American Express Hong Kong Sail Grand Prix.
Russell Coutts . . . “SailGP’s 2027 Season represents a major step forward – reflecting both the scale of our ambition, and the strength of the demand we’re seeing from cities and partners globally wanting to be part of the championship.”
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