News article
“We’re all under pressure to be more commercially sustainable”: Australia SAILGP team driver Tom Slingsby opens up about sponsorship struggles
Driver and CEO of the Australia SailGP Team Tom Slingsby has opened up about his failure to secure any major sponsorship deals and claimed the two-time defending champions could be ‘on the chopping block’ in the future.
Speaking on Shirley Robertson’s Sailing Podcast, Slingsby reflected on the league’s decision to drop Season 2 runner-up Japan from Season 3 after the team failed to receive any financial backing.
Looking back at the beginning of SailGP, Slingsby said: “The orders from Russell [Coutts, SailGP CEO] was that at the end of the first five years, you’ve got to be commercially sustainable – we had targets.”
However, SailGP has ‘progressed a lot quicker than we expected’, he said, resulting in a glut of perspective, commercially independent teams approaching the league. “SailGP can’t build boats fast enough,” he said.
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