SailGP rides rising tide with celebrity owners, brands

SailGP announced actors Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds as new owners of Australia's three-time champion team on Thursday in hopes of harnessing a wave of popularity for the upcoming championship.

The announced came just as the ink was drying on the team's first title sponsor deal with BONDS.

Reynolds led soccer side Wrexham out of anonymity and into the English second-tier Championship with an injection of marketing, cash and a popular docuseries that quickly converted legions of America fans. SailGP is hoping for their Wrexham moment, too.

"The fact that we can get that sort of involvement in one of the teams is amazing, and they'll have some fun with it too, which is what it's all about," Russell Coutts, the former Olympic champion who co-founded the league, told Reuters.

The celebrity involvement follows an operation co-founded by billionaire Larry Ellison to introduce more A-listers and big-name brands six years after its launch.

Oscar winner Anne Hathaway joined a female-led consortium that acquired the Red Bull Italy SailGP Team last week, while the competition itself named Rolex its title sponsor in November.

More than 200,000 ticketholders watched SailGP events last year, as the league reported strong growth in social media engagement, attracting younger fans.

The competition expanded to 12 teams for season five, with the addition of Brazil and Italy, and announced its new docuseries last month, part of a new content development push.

"We had so many sort of naysayers out there saying this is like another sailing league, it'll be gone in two years, people have tried this and done it before, it never works and SailGP has totally broken down those boundaries," said Tom Slingsby, the CEO and driver for the Australian team.

The 2012 Olympic gold medalist, whose team was rebranded as the BONDS Flying Roos, said he could not have imagined five years ago his team signing a brand like BONDS, as they discuss potential documentary options with Jackman and Reynolds.

"I would have said that's not possible. There's no chance," he said. "But here we are."

The leaders in the SailGP standings are not the only winners in the sponsorship race: On Monday, the US SailGP team announced Amazon has signed on as a sponsor, joining existing brands like Tommy Hilfiger and T-Mobile.

"You're starting to see really big brands come in and spend money in our sport," said Mike Buckley, the CEO and strategist for the US SailGP team. "We're on everybody's radar now."

Buckley helped lead a group of investors in the purchase of the US team in 2023, locking in early for the league that hopes to become the "F1 of sailing".

"Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts had a vision to build a TV product that the average racing fan would spend 90 minutes paying attention to," he said. "And I think they've done just that."

The New York Sail Grand Prix is set for June 7-8.