United States driver Jimmy Spithill has spoken about the team’s desire to have ’as many events as possible’ at home after four U.S. events were confirmed in Season 4.
The league will visit Chicago, L.A., New York and San Francisco in Season 4 - the most visits to the United States in a single season yet.
Spithill said the ‘more events in the country where you’re represented’ means extra opportunities in ‘building a fan base and engaging with partners and the media - it’s just a win-win.’
“The more events we can get in the U.S., the better for us, so it’s exciting to see more and more taking place at home.”
Spithill added that SailGP adding more American events to the calendar than ever before ‘clearly shows there’s a big market there’ and pointed to CBS’s broadcast numbers in Season 3.
The league’s race weekend in Saint-Tropez - the Range Rover Sail Grand Prix - was the most watched sailing event on U.S. broadcast in over 30 years - averaging 1.609 million viewers.
“The numbers don’t lie,” Spithill said, and pointed to the team’s social media following - 'compared to other teams, no-one else is even close.”
Looking ahead, Spithill said the team would fight to reach the ‘huge amount of eyeballs in the U.S.
“There’s a lot of sports fans and some massive sporting properties, so now to be breaking into that and getting more traction, the more races we can get the better.”
It comes after the first event of Season 4 , the Rolex United States Sail Grand Prix | Chicago took place on June 16-17, with Spithill’s crew finishing ninth.
From Chicago, SailGP will visit the city of Los Angeles for the first time for the Oracle Los Angeles Grand Prix on July 22-23.
