SailGP will target teams in India and the Middle East and races in Hong Kong and Italy as the Formula 1 of sailing breaks the $200m revenue mark.
Record attendances, including 20,000 at the UK leg, have driven record revenues in SailGP’s fifth season, with founder tech tycoon Larry Ellison able to scale back funding for the series, which saw Emirates GBR win their first title this month in Abu Dhabi. Ellison remains in charge.
China, Abu Dhabi and Mexico are locked in a $100m battle to enter teams in 2027, as City AM revealed this month, but SailGP’s managing director says the plans go way beyond that, with tenders that would take the fleet to 16 boats going out early next year.
“There’s still more markets to add,” said Andrew Thompson. “We’ve also been looking quite closely at India and South Korea. India is a huge market for sport – they just had the DP World Tour golf event there and, talking to our partners at DP World, that was a huge success.
“There’s a huge number of people into sailing in India as well. We want to make sure that we have strong partners that are actually purchasing teams who have the same kind of growth ethos and entrepreneurial mindset. The last thing we want is an owner who sits on a team and doesn’t really want to grow with SailGP.”
SailGP expansion
Thompson confirms that there is a 20-team limit for the fleet, which already boasts investment from the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway and Ares Management, but insists that SailGP wouldn’t sell a new team for less than $60m despite some stake sales valuing existing teams at $100m.
He stated that 14 races across a global range of locations is the goldilocks number, adding that “Hong Kong Harbour would be amazing. Korea is another one.”
“We don’t have a race in Italy right now so that’s something we’re very keen to look at in the future,” he added.
“There’s obviously those places in the Middle East that we haven’t been to as well. There’s becoming a lot of interest in our races so it comes down to picking the right partner.”
Thompson wouldn’t be drawn on the fees associated with hosting a SailGP event but sources close to the series insist some are in the tens of millions of dollars.
The 2026 season begins in Perth on 17 January before two further races in Australasia. Portsmouth will host the UK leg in July.