SailGP, with its new celebrity owners and an array of fresh sponsors hopes to harness the wave of popularity to take the global sailing series to the next stage as it returns to New York City for the third time to race this weekend.

SailGP announced that Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds and BONDS as the new owners of Australia’s three-time champions team were announced on Thursday.

Reynolds helped Wrexham, a struggling soccer team in England’s second-tier Championship, to rise from obscurity with a combination of marketing genius, cash and an acclaimed docu-series which quickly won over legions of American supporters.

SailGP hopes for the same moment as Wrexham.

Russell Coutts (former Olympic champion and co-founder of the league) said: “We can get this sort of involvement with one of the teams, and they’ll also have some fun.”

Fans have grown accustomed to this kind of news, as the billionaire co-founder Larry Ellison’s operation catches on with celebrities and attracts even more major brands six years after it was launched.

The Oscar-winning Anne Hathaway has joined a consortium led by women that bought the Red Bull Italy SailGP Team in the last week. In November, the competition named Rolex as its title sponsor.

SailGP reported a strong increase in social media engagement last year as it attracted younger fans.

Season five of the competition will feature 12 teams, including Brazil and Italy. Last month, as part of an effort to develop new content, the new docuseries was announced.

Tom Slingsby is the CEO and driver of the Australian team. He said, “We heard so many naysayers saying that this was just another sailing league. It’ll be over in two years. People have done this before and it didn’t work. SailGP has completely broken down these boundaries.”

As they discuss possible documentary options with Jackman, Reynolds, and the 2012 Olympic gold-medallist, who had his team rebranded to BONDS FlyingRoos, he said that he couldn’t have imagined signing a brand as iconic as BONDS five years ago.

“I would not have thought that was possible. He said, “There’s no way.” “But we’re here.”

Amazon, along with other sponsors like Tommy Hilfiger, T-Mobile, and Tommy Hilfiger, is not only the winner in the SailGP sponsorship race.

Mike Buckley is the CEO and strategist of the U.S. SailGP. “We’re now on everyone’s radar.”

Buckley backed up his words in 2023 by leading a group investors to purchase the U.S. sailing team. This was a way of locking in early on the league which aims to be the “F1” of sailing.

He said that Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts shared a vision of creating a television product for which the average racing fan could spend 90 minutes watching. “I think they have done that.”

The New York Sail Grand Prix will take place on June 7 and 8. Reporting by Amy Tennery, New York Editing Christian Radnedge

(source: Reuters)