Inside SailGP: how the Championship calendar comes together

When SailGP unveiled its 2027 calendar, fans saw a sleek list of iconic cities, blockbuster venues and headline-grabbing additions like Hong Kong and a yet-to-be-revealed Italian venue.

What they didn’t see was the years-long process, logistical juggling act and behind-the-scenes negotiations that go into building the Rolex SailGP Championship’s global schedule.

According to SailGP COO Julien di Biase, putting together the league’s calendar is part strategy exercise, part commercial balancing act and part engineering puzzle.

“We are already planning 2028 and beyond,” di Biase revealed. “A venue conversation can easily take a couple of years before it’s locked in, especially if it’s a multi-year arrangement.

“Where we want to get to is announcing the calendar more than a year in advance. We’re not fully there yet, but for many events we are already planning a few years ahead.”

That long-term planning has become increasingly important as SailGP continues its rapid expansion. What began as a five-event Championship has evolved into a truly global circuit, now featuring 13 teams and a growing list of host venues all vying for space on the schedule.

“We’ve gone from five or six events to more than a dozen,” di Biase said. “That’s been driven by the number of teams because they all want to have a home event.

“Why is it 12 events rather than 24? Logistically we need to be able to move from A to B to C fast enough. And each new long-term city partnership helps us build towards that 20-plus calendar dream.

“It’s also our vision to become a true premium property that is "always on" and that fans can view every couple of weeks.”

Stadium racing comes first

Those logistics sit at the heart of almost every calendar decision SailGP makes.

Long before discussions begin around fan zones, broadcast windows or hospitality, SailGP’s operations team has to answer a simpler question: can the league physically stage a Grand Prix there?

“There are only a few venues around the world that really provide the conditions for SailGP stadium racing,” di Biase explained. “You need enough depth, the support of local authorities to close the harbour, the right wind conditions and availability at the right time of year.”

That pursuit of true “stadium racing” has become one of the defining principles of SailGP’s venue selection process. The league wants fans close to the action, with grandstands positioned right on the waterfront and breathtaking racing unfolding directly in front of spectators.

“We want people to experience SailGP up close and watch it from their grandstand seat like a football match,” di Biase said. “There are venues we’ve turned down because the experience just wouldn’t have been good enough.”

From casting a wide net to targeting cities

The league’s approach to choosing cities has also evolved dramatically since SailGP launched.

In the early years, SailGP cast a wide net, actively pitching events to cities around the world as it looked to establish the Championship.

Now, with demand growing and the league’s global profile expanding, the process has become far more targeted - and for the cities themselves, more competitive.

“At the beginning we were casting a very wide net and asking cities for bids,” di Biase said. “We thought we should contact 60+ cities and we could race almost anywhere, but actually there are lots of places where we could do a race but it wouldn’t really feel like SailGP. Now we’re much more targeted in the cities we approach.”

The criteria themselves have evolved too. While iconic destinations remain central to SailGP’s identity, the importance of pairing teams with home events has become increasingly clear as the league has matured.

“We realized in the first season, that when we had the combination of a home team and a home event, from an engagement perspective, that was the biggest enabler,” di Biase explained.

“When we would go somewhere without a home team, it was very hard to get people behind it because there was a lack of awareness. It quickly became evident that we have to race where we have a home team.”

Why Italy and Hong Kong matter

That philosophy helps explain some of the biggest additions to the 2027 calendar.

The introduction of an Italian venue gives the Red Bull Italy SailGP Team a long-awaited home event in one of sailing’s biggest markets.

“We’re going to Italy in 2027 because we want to be back there with an Italian team,” di Biase said.

“We’ve done events in Italy before, but we haven’t been there in recent years and we’re missing out on capitalizing on Italy, which is a massive sailing market. The Italian team needs a home event to really start selling sponsorship.”

Meanwhile, Hong Kong represents something slightly different: a strategic return to Asia and a potential gateway into an enormous new market.

“We’ve been working on Hong Kong for a long time, actually - I think three years now,” di Biase revealed.

“We wanted a venue in Asia and if we’re going to Asia, unless we had a team from another country, then we wanted to go to China. Hong Kong looked like the perfect opportunity. We have also started to look at other venues in China.”

The commercial evolution of SailGP

Modern SailGP calendars are shaped by more than sporting strategy and iconic backdrops. Commercial partnerships now play a huge role in determining where the league races.

“In our first season, we launched the circuit offering events to cities for free,” di Biase said. “Honestly, the first few took it, but some cities were not even interested.”

That changed significantly during and after COVID, when cities increasingly began using major sporting events to drive tourism and global exposure.

“COVID was a bit of a blessing in disguise because cities were very keen to talk about events,” di Biase explained. “Everybody was asking, ‘How do we get back to normal? How do we put ourselves back on the map again?’

“That helped us because we started doing deals during COVID and realized we had a really compelling product for host cities.”

Today, city partnerships help fund a significant portion of each SailGP event.

“Where we are today is that we are truly partnering with cities because, on average, the revenue we make from city partnerships for one event is more than half the cost of producing the event,” di Biase said.

The next challenge: breaking through the ceiling

As SailGP continues to grow, the calendar itself is becoming one of the Championship’s most powerful assets - a carefully balanced mix of iconic cities, commercial strategy, logistical precision and long-term ambition.

And according to di Biase, the work behind the scenes is only getting started.

“We are actually reaching a ceiling now,” he said. “If we want a calendar made up of 20-plus events, we’re going to have to do our logistics differently.

“We need to think outside the box and completely revisit our logistics and event format. This ability for SailGP to keep evolving is part of what makes it so special.”

Check out SailGP's 2027 Season calendar HERE. SailGP+ members get first access to ticket sales - sign up for free HERE!