In the eye of the beholder

If the U.S. SailGP Team has been mocked for their poor performance on the race course, they may prove that good results aren’t the secret to creating value. The Sports Business Journal reports the team is raising new investment at a $125M pre-money valuation, which if successful, would mark the far-and-away record value for a team in the fifth-year sailing league.

Two sources told SBJ the team is aiming to raise total new investment of between $10M and $20M, with another source indicating the team will issue new equity and that an investment bank is not being used to solicit new investors. A representative for the U.S. team declined to comment, while lead investor Avenue Sports did not respond to a request for comment.

The $125M valuation would be more than double what most SailGP teams have sold for in recent years. SailGP’s Italian team was just acquired by a Muse Sport-led consortium for $45M. The British team was valued at $40M in late 2022, while the Canadian team sold for $45M last year. – Full report

SailGP information – New York event – YouTube – Facebook

Season 5 Leaderboard (after 5 events)
1. Australia – Tom Slingsby, 39 points
2. Great Britain – Dylan Fletcher, 38 points
3. Spain – Diego Botin, 36 points
4. New Zealand – Peter Burling, 35 points
5. Canada – Giles Scott, 34 points
6. France – Quintin Delapierre, 28 points*
7. Switzerland – Sebastien Schneiter, 18 points
8. Italy – Ruggero Tita, 13 points
9. Denmark – Nicolai Sehested, 9 points**
10. Brazil – Martine Grael, 2 point**
11. United States – Taylor Canfield, 2 points**
12. Germany – Erik Heil, -1 points**
* France was awarded points for the first two events as their F50 was not available
**Teams receive season penalty points for incidents during practice or racing

Season 5 Schedule – 14 events *
2024
November 23-24 – Dubai, UAE

2025
January 18-19 – Auckland, New Zealand
February 8-9 – Sydney, Australia
March 15-16 – Los Angeles, USA
March 22-23 – San Francisco, USA
May 3-4 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
June 7-8 – New York City, USA
July 19-20 – Portsmouth, Great Britain
August 16-17 – Sassnitz, Germany
September 6-7 – Taranto, Italy
September 12-13 – Saint-Tropez, France
September 20-21 – Geneva, Switzerland
October 4-5 – Andalucía – Cádiz, Spain
November 7-8 – Middle East
November 29-30 – Grand Final – Abu Dhabi, UAE
* The season began with 14 events but Tranto was replaced with Saint-Tropez, while Rio and Middle East were cancelled though Rio may be rescheduled.

Format for Season 5:
• Teams compete in identical F50 catamarans.
• Each event runs across two days.
• Five qualifying fleet races of approximately 15 minutes may be scheduled for each regatta.
• The top three teams from qualifying advance to a final race to be crowned event champion and earn the largest share of the prize purse (amount not confirmed; Season 4 had $400,000.00 USD prize purse with winning team earning $200k at each event).
• The season ends with the Grand Final, which includes the Championship Final Race for the top three teams in the season standing with the winner claiming a monetary award (amount not confirmed; Season 4 had $2 million USD prize).
• The top team on points ahead of the three-boat Championship Final will get a monetary award (amount not confirmed; Season 4 had a $350,000.00 prize).
• The league currently maintains control ownership of the teams based in Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, and Spain, though it’s actively in the process of selling the Australian and Spanish teams

For competition documents, click here.

Established in 2018, SailGP seeks to be an annual, global sports league featuring fan-centric inshore racing among national teams in some of the iconic harbors around the globe.

Source: SailGP