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January 18, 2025 11 mins

Auckland could become a fixture of the SailGP calendar for years to come, with Sir Russell Coutts confirming the global foiling league is in conversations regarding a long-term hosting deal in the City of Sails.

This year’s event in Auckland is the third of a four-year hosting agreement in New Zealand, with Christchurch hosting the first two editions on Lyttelton Harbour.

The event has followed suit in terms of quality of racing and crowd support, with the Waitematā Harbour racecourse providing plenty of action and entertainment, while the waterfront stadium on Wynyard Point has been packed with fans.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB’s Jason Pine, Coutts said he was pleased with the support of the event among the SailGP stadium and in surrounding areas.

“There’s a great crowd there, great vibe in the viaduct; I think local businesses were doing well out of it, which is what we want to see,” Coutts said.

“We’ve already started the talk about coming back here long-term, which I think is the real benefit for a venue.

“If we can put together a five-year – for example – term, and you come back every year; it’s all very well to have a great one-off event, but if you can come back year after year and build the brand equity and build the awareness, then you will get more people travelling from Australia and so forth, and even the US, coming down here for the event and then holidaying in New Zealand. Which is, of course, what it’s all about.

“We’re certainly keen to do that. We wanted to try Auckland to see if it worked. It clearly has, so we’re talking about a long-term arrangement.”

A long-term deal could see Auckland become a cornerstone of the SailGP calendar should the league’s schedule follow a similar timeline in the future, with season five running from December 2024 to December 2025.


Sir Russell Coutts speaks to Newstalk ZB's Jason Pine during the Auckland SailGP event. Photo / Jason Ludlow, SailGP

The Auckland stop is the second event of the current season, with around 25,000 fans expected to attend across the weekend, and conditions have been so good the league has been able to shoehorn an extra race into both days, with four fleet races on Saturday and three fleet races scheduled before the podium race this afternoon.

The league has also used the Waitematā Harbour and Hauraki Gulf as a testing ground for new developments this week. It’s the first time the fleet has rolled out its high-speed T-foils, allowing for potentially faster racing, while a split-fleet format was also trialled during practice sessions in Auckland with a look to implementing that for proper racing in the future.

That comes as the league looks to expand further in season six, with Coutts confirming SailGP was looking to add another two teams for the next campaign – among a number of other developments in the works.

“We will go to a split fleet format then, so we’ll go to seven-and-seven and then probably two more teams the following year, so eight-and-eight,” he said.

“We’ll add more venues, we want to continue to grow our audience. We’re up around 20 million-plus dedicated viewership per event now, distributing to 212 countries and territories worldwide, so that’s fantastic. The future looks really, really bright.

“Of course, we want to keep developing the technology. We’ve got the light-air foils coming on stream. We’ve got a really cool propulsion system developed in conjunction with Hamilton Jet here in New Zealand that will, a little bit like the driver assistance in Formula 1, in super-light wind conditions ... help get the boats up on to the foils.

“Obviously there will be rules around that. It’s a very controversial move in terms of the sailing world, just like allowing the coaches to communicate during racing – that’s not allowed in any other form of the sport.

“We’re not afraid of a bit of controversy. So I think that’s going to really move the sport forward.”

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport Podcast with Jason Fine
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
News Talks HEEDB broadcasting live from sal GP Auckland. Great
pleasure to be joined by sale GP Chief Executive Sir
Russell Coats. Sir Russell, lovely to see you. You've co
founded sal GP twenty eighteen. Are you where you wanted
to be? Hoped you would be sort of five, six,
seven years on.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah, it's it's It's moved pretty fast, hasn't it. We're
really thrilled with the developments. I mean, we set out
to have a professional sports league like other professional sports leagues,
where there's we can sign long term agreements with partners.
And of course now this is the Rolling SALGP Championship

(00:49):
where we've signed a ten year plus agreement with Rollings
so and all the other global partners you know, Oracle, Mubardla,
DP World, Emirates, a Apex and now a Core you know.
I mean this that's way ahead of where we thought
would be at this prison point in time. And they
are all long contracts as well, and it's great to

(01:14):
have those sort of partners on board.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, so the commercial model's going great. So to the
viewer numbers, the eyeballs on the sport. Why do you
think it has quickly attracted so much spectator attention, Well.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
The sport's never had a consistent platform amazingly before. So
if you look at Formula one and you make it,
you know, you look at what they've done. They've got
twenty four events a year, right, so if you say
that that's roughly one every two weeks, that creates the

(01:47):
appointment to view, and so the viewer the fan might
not know where the next race is necessarily, but they
know to search up the next race and find out
that it's on, and of course they have their off season,
so in some cases it's one a week, you know,
but there's a defined period of time where there are
events on and the fans know that there is events on.
We are still in not even at that level at
thirteen events. We need to get to twenty odd events

(02:10):
a year. And once we get to that stage, we'll
be able to jump this commercially again because we'll then
go into series within series, you know, So for example
in North America, you might end up with six events
in Canada and the US, that of course will be
great for our host broadcast as media partners, but also

(02:31):
the commercial partners involved as well. Great for the fans
because you can then have and the same in Europe,
the same in the Middle East, the same in Australasia.

Speaker 4 (02:40):
You then have the races.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Of course they cover all the series, but the races
that are focused within their time zones, and that really
jumps it to the next level.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Again, how much of the attraction for spectators do you
think is the fact that all the boats are the same,
they're identical.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
It's massive because you know, at the end of the day,
it comes down to the quality of the racing, and
we saw yesterday that any of these teams are capable
of winning if they put it together, that they are
capable of winning. Of course, the best teams are more
consistent at the stage, but you know, they're all they're
all good races. We've got the best sailors in the
world out there racing and identical boats, and that I

(03:20):
think is the reason why it's so close.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
You know, you only have to make a slight mistake.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
And the other factor is they're not only identical boats,
but we intentionally make them really difficult to sail. So,
for example, if we could automate certain parts of the
flight control system, and it would make it really easy
to sail the boat.

Speaker 4 (03:39):
We don't. We actually make it really hard to sail
the boat.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
So it reflects it sort of reflects sailing talent above,
you know, just robotic type competition. And I think that's
that's that makes it really interesting, you know. Yeah, and
allowing that, I think allowing the coaches to communicate with
the boat live during the race is a big deal too.
We haven't quite captured that on broadcast yet. Maybe it

(04:06):
will end up being a second screen experience where the
fan can also listen into their preferred team. We have
some amazing technology in the pipeline now that where a
fan will be able to go on board live see
the view on board their chosen boat. For example, if
you if you're following the Black Foils, you'll be able

(04:28):
to go on board their boat and watch the race
from their perspective and listen to their comps.

Speaker 4 (04:33):
You know, that might even be.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
You know, be better better than broadcasting for some of
the fans for sure. So yeah, we're excited about those
sort of developments coming up. We've already got that technology working.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
By the way, Oh, that's amazing. That will be a
real attraction. So, as a world class sailor yourself, put
yourself on one of these boats. What it's a difficult
boat to sail, as you say, what do you need
to do to sail it?

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Well, well, I even sell them much, you know, I
think I've been twice, but and I haven't driven one,
you know.

Speaker 4 (05:04):
But they are in to be difficult, you know.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
It's like the analogy would be flying an aircraft with
somebody controlling the thrust, somebody controlling the tail, somebody controlling
each flap on each in each wing, you know, and
not that same person all the time either, because they've
got a cross sides. So when for example, when the
fly control is crossing sides, the driver's got to be

(05:27):
flying the boat, you know.

Speaker 4 (05:29):
So I think there's thirty two actions that the teams
have to perform in perfect time.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
So if the half a second out with one of
the actions, you see the boat go out of trim.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
And you see that all the time.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
Because it's so difficult to do because it depends on
the turn rate. Sometimes you're dictated by the other boats
on the course. So all of these teams can fly
the boat with zero touchdowns around the course. If they're
on their own, but you put other boats on the course,
it changes it, you know, and all of a sudden,
it puts your timing out. You can't necessarily predict when

(06:05):
they are in a maneuver, and so all of a
sudden it's slightly rushed, some of the timing comes out,
and the mistake gets made, the boat falls into the water,
and the passes happen, you know, so's it's really tough,
you know. And then that combination between the coaches and
the sailors. I think there's a lot of learning to
be done there because you know, you can imagine when

(06:26):
you're in the heat of the moment, in the heat
of battle, and you've got ten other boats on the
course at the moment, seemed to be eleven. You've got
a lot going on, and then the coach is looking
at the staff has generally split between somebody looking at
the data, somebody focusing on the tactics, and then the
head coach right that's putting it all together, and just

(06:50):
to figure out what to communicate with the team at
that moment because you can't tell them ten things, you know.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
It's like it's like when in the NBA when they
have a time out, the coach generally only you know,
the coaching stuff now to get together and they say,
what are we going to tell them?

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Right? And then they tell them basically one thing, maybe two,
but usually one thing. And so I think there's a
lot of learning there is. Okay, what to tell them?
Do we tell them that there's more breeze on the
right hand side of the course? Do we tell them
that they're not using enough rada differential? Do we tell
them that they're moving the foil too much? Do we
tell them that they should be using more wing twist?

Speaker 4 (07:22):
You know what is it? And and so that's pretty cool,
I think, you know.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Absolutely And and amongst all that you're throwing them onto
t foils as well, how did you assess their ability
to sail on those yesterday?

Speaker 3 (07:33):
Well, they're meant to be the best in the world,
so you know, we don't make it too easy for them.
But yeah, that you know, you've seen that the good
teams actually weren't aligned on how how to how to
because you've got the downforce on the on the rata
on the high side, you've got the forces on the
foils and the forces on the wing, and there was

(07:56):
some debate over how to best utilize that.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
I think the.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
Australians and actually the Brazilian team locked onto it the
best first and then the other teams have been playing
catch up.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
So we've got your son in a bit later on
Proud dad watching your son become a world champion in
the moth class.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
Yeah, he's he's done what, you know, did really well.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
I mean, there's a group of young sailors up in
our small Suning club and manly that we're really proud of.
They've they've the leading the world and the moth class
right now, and that's you know, there's some really good
sailors in that class. The Jagger Boutine was one of them,
for example. You know, so in Sebastian Cyder and and

(08:39):
so forth. There's some great sailors in that class. And and.

Speaker 4 (08:44):
You know, so it's a real feather in their cap
that they've they've reached that sort of level. And of
course they are all.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Looking at this league to they probably believe now that
they could step in and drive.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
I don't think they probably could, but you know that's
the that's their ambition.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
Just to finish let's zoom ahead a but you already
alluded to it, the growth of sale GP. Wats your
vision for us all for this event or this series
five years from now, let's say ten years from now.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
Well, I think we're going to add two more teams
for next season, so we'll go to and we will
go to a split fleet format then, so we'll go
to seven and seven and then probably two more teams
the following years eight and eight will add more venues.
We want to continue to grow our audience, so we're
up around twenty million plus dedicated viewership per event now

(09:34):
distributing to two hundred and twelve territories, countries and territories worldwide.
So that's fantastic, you know, I mean, I think the
future looks really really bright. Of course, we want to
keep developing the technology. So we've got the light here
of foils coming on stream. We've got a really super

(09:57):
cool propulsion system developed in conjunction with Hamilton Jet here
in New Zealand that will a little bit like the
driver assistance in Formula one. We're in super light wind
conditions that will help get the boats up onto the foils,
and obviously there will be rules around that it's a
very controversial move, you know in terms of the sailing world.

(10:19):
Just like allowing the coaches to communicate during racing, that's
not allowed in any other form of the sport. We're
not afraid of a bit of controversy. So you know,
that's I think that's going to really move the sport forward.
And you know it's now becoming now the athletes are
starting to earn some decent money out of it. We've
up the prize money to twelve point eight million, and
we're going to every time we sign a global part

(10:40):
and we're just going to keep increasing that.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
So yeah, future looks bright, fantastic.

Speaker 4 (10:45):
Enjoying being an Auckland you must be in tween point
eight million US.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, let's get the currency right. You enjoying being an Auctlee.
You must be enjoy being here. It's great, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (10:53):
Yeah, it's I was really happy with the way the
event was supported yesterday.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
You know, there's great crowd there, great vibe and the viaduct.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
I think local businesses were doing well out of it,
which is what we want to see. Yeah, i'd like
to We've already sort of started the talk about coming
back here. Long term, you know, which I think is
the real benefit for a venue if you can if
we can put together a.

Speaker 4 (11:18):
Five year, for example, term and you come back every year.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
It's all very well to have a great one off event,
but if you can, if you can come back year
after year and build the brand equity and build the awareness,
then you will get more people traveling from Australia and
so forth, and even the US coming down here for
the event and then holidaying in New Zealand, which is
of course what it's all about. So so yeah, we
we're certainly keen to do that. We wanted to try

(11:43):
Auckland and see if it worked. It clearly has, so yeah,
we're up for talking about a long term arrangement.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Thanks for popping into Russell Hart. It's a busy weekend
for you. Really appreciate your time.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
Thanks for more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine. Listen
live to News Talk said B weekends from midday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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