When Sir Russell Coutts, co-founder and CEO of SailGP and one of sailing’s most decorated figures, stepped into American Magic’s state-of-the-art facility at the Port of Pensacola today, signaling that Pensacola is being positioned as the epicenter of competitive sailing in North America.
A Game-Changer for Elite Training
The American Magic High Performance Center at the Port of Pensacola will serve as SailGP’s central training base, with teams expected to begin arriving in September. Coutts explained why Pensacola beat out other locations for the honor.
- “The conditions here are amazing,” he said. “We were fairly diligent about researching the conditions here for training. It’s quite a big investment for us to bring, first of all, one boat with all the spares, eventually two boats with all the spares here so teams can multi-boat train.”
SailGP ships roughly 109 containers of equipment to each race venue worldwide — meaning athletes have precious little time to actually train on the water between events.
Coutts said, “Having a building facility here where the racing teams can come with their coaching staff and train will be a real game changer. They’ll be able to train their existing athletes, of course, but also train new athletes, which has been a real challenge for the racing teams thus far.”
A Minor League for Sailing — Based in Pensacola
The New York Times and other media outlets have reported that SailGP is establishing a minor league. The discussions are in early stages, but Pensacola is the frontrunner to host it.
Details: Coutts described the proposed junior circuit as featuring boats somewhere between 25 and 30 feet long, crewed by four sailors, using the same wing-sail configuration as the premier F50 foiling catamarans. The boats would also serve as test platforms for new components destined for the F50 fleet.
“With the central training facility, the F50s being here, it makes sense to have a minor league based here as well,” Coutts said. “It won’t tour, just like some of the minor leagues here in other sports in the states. It’ll be centered in one or maybe two venues, winter and summer.”
Why it matters: The minor league concept gives athletes from smaller sailing nations—think Bermuda or the British Virgin Islands, countries that have medaled at the Olympics but lack the resources for a full SailGP team—a pathway into the sport’s elite teams.
20 More Jobs
American Magic COO Tyson Lamond said the SailGP partnership will immediately grow the organization’s headcount at the Pensacola facility.
- “If I was to look at it as a straight headcount, I would say this adds 20 people to our headcount every day,” Lamond said, noting that staffing plans would kick in from July as the F50 boats are brought to the facility.
American Magic CEO Mike Cazer framed the partnership in broader terms: “What we’ve done with SailGP in terms of the long-term commitment to the training base is really creating the partnership that’s going to, in our view, put Pensacola solidly on the map as the premier sailing destination in the United States.”
Could Pensacola Host a SailGP Race?
While SailGP is already racing in New York this season, Coutts said the league is actively seeking additional North American venues.
- “Why not consider coming here as well?” he said, speaking directly about Pensacola.
The league currently has 13 teams racing at 13 events per season, with a stated goal of expanding to 20 teams and 20 events. Coutts pointed to Formula One as the model: “They get 24 events a season and we’ll get to somewhere around 20 over the next five or six seasons.”
- He noted that adding teams directly boosts viewership in their home countries. “Brazil — we used to have 600,000 viewership per event; that’s now jumped a million to 1.6 million straight away, just because we added a Brazilian team.”
The Business Case
When asked about the return on American Magic’s reported $60 million investment in the Danish SailGP team, Cazer was confident without getting specific.
- “We view this as a very attractive financial investment,” he said, noting that title partner Rockwell — a global insulation materials company headquartered in Denmark — provides a “rock solid foundation.” Cazer said the team expects to generate positive cash flows within the next couple of seasons.
Coutts offered some validation: “Four of the 13 teams are currently profitable, and two of them are close to break-even. The model’s clearly working. And what I’ll tell you is — the next team sold for a little bit more than what Mike paid for.”
- Cazer added a remarkable footnote: “We’ve now created the second or third most valuable sports franchise in Denmark.”
What It Means for Pensacola
Mayor Reeves noted that having 13 SailGP teams — each traveling with roughly 20 staff members — rotating through the Port for training weeks will generate meaningful economic activity for the city. He said the existing agreement between the city and American Magic required no substantive changes to accommodate SailGP’s presence.
“The idea of having 13 teams and 20-ish people down here for a week or more, and you start extrapolating that value to the city of Pensacola — they’ll be busier out here on port,” Reeves said.