SailGP is aiming to break even at the end of Season 5 but this will require a tightening of League logistics and the SailGP League owned team finances.
Four SailGP League owned teams – Canada, France, Spain and New Zealand – are on notice that one of them will be dropped unless they get third party ownership.
The squeeze comes from the lack of available F50 hulls. Ten teams are competing in the season 4, ending 13-14 July 2024. With two new independent teams – Brazil and another TBA – puts the four remaining SailGP funded teams under pressure, one will have to go for season 5, starting 24 November 2024.
The newsletter Tip & Shaft, in an interview with Julien Di Biase, SailGP’s chief operations officer, reported that a franchise costs at least $40 million US (£31 million UK).
There are other manoeuvres taking place under the apparent calm surface of the SailGP world as they shuffle the 14 events planned for season 5 between the 20 interested cities.
To be noted is the return of the UK, 19/20 July 2025, to the listed events although no venue named as yet. The new team Brazil get an event, 3/4 May 2025, and the other new TBA team also looks likely to claim an event.
Fourteen events, five short of the original SailGP target, but considered a good figure as they work to improve the league logistics and build the return on investment for the Cities.
Costs for the events, excluding TV production, are between £1.5 and £3 million per event. Today, more than half of this is financed by the cities, whereas initially it was only SailGP that paid.
Read the full Tip & Shaft/sail racing article here . . .
Related Post . . .
SailGP puts Canada, France, Spain and whisper it . . . New Zealand on the block for season 5
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