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When it comes to world-class sailors, few are as internationally renowned as New Zealand’s Russell Coutts. Claiming the gold at the LA Olympics in 1984, helming his country’s team to victory at the America’s Cup (AC) in 1995, and again in 2000, and subsequently successfully racing with the AC Swiss and then US teams, he’s truly one of the sport’s true figureheads.
But the America’s Cup could not be re-imagined into his vision as a commercially sustainable entertainment property, so upon his team losing it in 2017, Coutts alongside team owner Larry Ellison launched the global sports league SailGP, notably using the same AC50 platform in which their team failed to defend.
When asked how SailGP is set apart from other international competitions such as the America’s Cup, Coutts replied:
“I think that the audience for the America’s Cup is the same as that of SailGP and in my opinion the two properties are really interconnected, benefiting one another. Sailing has always lacked consistency and publicity, two of the major factors when it comes to audience – SailGP has both…
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