- 7/11/2025
Frank The Tank
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SportsTranscript
00:00All right!
00:02Well, it's another episode of Frank Walks, and I'm here with Mike Buckley, the CEO of
00:08USLGP.
00:10You know, he's going to try to bring back the America's Cup to the United States.
00:15We held that thing in the history of 175 years.
00:18We never used to lose that thing, but now we have to get it back, and this is the guy
00:22who's going to bring back the America's Cup.
00:24Mike Buckley, let's go for a little walk.
00:26Let's do it.
00:26Frank Talks while Frank walks.
00:30It's time for Frank Walk.
00:36Have you been to a SailGP race?
00:38I've never been to a SailGP race.
00:39Sounds like some of these guys have in Chicago.
00:43Oh, that'd be nice.
00:44Yeah.
00:44I see that the America's Cup's going to be in Naples.
00:48The America's Cup is going to be in Naples.
00:50Yeah, they just announced that the other day.
00:53You know, I always wanted to see Naples.
00:55Maybe that'll be an excuse to get out to Naples.
00:57You going to go?
00:57Have you ever been?
00:58No, I've never been to New York.
01:00Never been anywhere in Europe?
01:01Never anywhere in New York.
01:02Where are you from?
01:04Well, my great-grandparents are actually from Naples.
01:08Seems like that's your time.
01:10That would seem like the time.
01:12Hey, once we cross, we'll start the conversation.
01:18Okay, let's go.
01:20So, Frank, hold on.
01:21Can we share a piece of context?
01:23Sure, please help me.
01:25So, my design is SailGP is not in the America's Cup.
01:29SailGP is like a new lead.
01:32It was made in 2019.
01:34You mean?
01:35And they're racing.
01:35Essentially, it's like people call it Formula One on the water,
01:38where they're racing.
01:39So, SailGP was born out of the America's Cup,
01:41but Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts created it.
01:44Oh.
01:45So, basically, in 2016, 2017, the America's Cup was in Bermuda,
01:52and Larry and Russell said to the group of America's Cup owners,
01:56we need to create a commercially sustainable America's Cup.
02:01And when all the other teams said, you know,
02:05that they wanted to keep doing the America's Cup,
02:07Larry and Russell said, okay, great.
02:09We're going to take the boats, we're going to take the people,
02:12we're going to take the technology,
02:13and we're going to create SailGP.
02:15Now, would you get back to racing for the America's Cup?
02:19No.
02:19So, it's a little bit different.
02:22It's, you know, from the outside,
02:23a lot of people kind of confuse the two,
02:25but the America's Cup happens roughly every four years.
02:28Yeah.
02:28In SailGP, we race every month,
02:3214 Grand Prixs around the world,
02:35and it's totally separate from the America's Cup.
02:38Similar boats, although they race monohulls,
02:41we race foiling catamarans.
02:44And, you know, a lot of the same athletes kind of go back and forth,
02:47but we're competing for the Rolex SailGP Championship,
02:53which will be in Abu Dhabi in November.
02:56Now, I see that you have your teams here.
03:00Now, these are co-ed teams.
03:01They are.
03:02So, it's one of the few sports, professional sports,
03:06where men and women are competing with and against each other,
03:09which, you know, we think is really great.
03:12I see that Anna, she's a grinder.
03:15She is.
03:16She's a grinder, a jib trimmer, and an absolute badass trailblazer.
03:21Now, what does a grinder do on the SailGP boats?
03:25They hold onto these handles that spin,
03:27and when they turn them,
03:30that turns a winch in the back of the boat,
03:31where there's a line wrapped around that controls our wing.
03:35So, she and one other person supply the power
03:38that allows us to trim our wing sail.
03:41Now, there is no motor.
03:43This is pure sailing.
03:45This is the wind.
03:47Now, what if there's a day where there's no wind?
03:50Yeah, so that's kind of the only void
03:54in kind of the game day equation,
03:57and, you know, one of the innovative ideas
04:00that the league has come up with is
04:01an electric propulsion system
04:05in really, really light wind
04:07that allows us to pop up on the foils,
04:10and they're working on it right now.
04:13So, it takes very little wind for our boats to hydrofoil,
04:16but it takes a little bit more for them to get up on the foils,
04:20for you to get rid of enough drag that the boats jump up on their foils,
04:25kind of like going down the runway on an airplane.
04:28And so, these electric engines will just kind of propel the boat
04:31to get up on their foils and then shut off.
04:34So, they're testing them right now,
04:37but that's kind of, you know,
04:39those kind of innovations are what makes SailGP really cool.
04:42Is this anywhere like Olympic?
04:45Yeah.
04:46South sailing?
04:46A lot of crossover, but these boats are much bigger.
04:50Our boats are 50 feet tall.
04:52I'm sorry, 50 feet long, 100 feet tall.
04:56Olympics is more kind of small boats,
04:58two people, one person.
05:00But a lot of the sailors, like Anna is an Olympian.
05:03Hans just won a bronze medal in the last Olympics.
05:07Tom Slingsby is an Olympic gold medalist.
05:09He's the Australian driver.
05:12There's, you know, Ben Ainslie is the most decorated Olympian in our sport.
05:15He's the owner of the British team.
05:17So, a lot of crossover with the Olympics and SailGP.
05:21Now, I'm looking at this,
05:23and I saw a video of the boats sometimes tip over.
05:27They flip over, they capsize.
05:30What is that experience like?
05:32Yeah, there's, I think there's been 11 or 12 capsizes in SailGP history.
05:38We've been part of two of them.
05:41You know, it's, after the fact,
05:44it's quite scary to think about what you go through,
05:46but in the moment, you don't, there's no time to think.
05:49It happens like that.
05:51But we all know the risks.
05:53It's, these boats are truly racing on the edge,
05:57and you're pushing the limits.
05:59And, you know, when one or a couple people make a mistake,
06:03you know, it can be catastrophic.
06:06Now, how long are these races?
06:08How many miles and how long do these races usually last?
06:11Yeah, they're about 16 minutes.
06:14So we go, usually we do two or three laps around a set race course.
06:19SailGP brings the racing close to the fans,
06:22and the fans close to the racing,
06:24which is unique in SailGP compared to the America's Cup,
06:28where that race kind of...
06:29Yeah, America's is like a,
06:29more to, it's like a three, four-hour race a day.
06:32Exactly.
06:33And it's a little bit farther away, tough to see.
06:35So for us, we have grandstands, we have hospitality,
06:39and in some of the venues, including here in New York City,
06:42we're, you know, from here to the cars over there,
06:45away from the crowds.
06:46And you get to see, you know, all the action.
06:48It's also on, you know, it's also on CBS here in the U.S.
06:53But, yeah, it's truly revolutionizing the way the sport's viewed.
06:57You know, it's kind of, it's like going to a Mets game.
06:59When I think about sailing, I think of two things.
07:03I think in America's Cup and the Olympics.
07:05Yep.
07:06And so this is now becoming like a more normal race circuit.
07:12Yeah, the, you know, the America's Cup has great tradition, right?
07:16That's why you know about it.
07:17Yeah.
07:17You watched it probably when you were a kid, Dennis Connor.
07:20Yeah, I want to see us get it back.
07:21I mean, come on, we're going to, it's in Naples.
07:23It's in Naples in 2027.
07:25But what makes it hard is that it turns on and turns off
07:30and kind of goes away for three or four years.
07:33And I think, you know, the modern fans, they want to consume year-round, right?
07:40And that's how SailGP came in and kind of closed that gap.
07:44Maybe the America's Cup is a little bit more like the Ryder Cup, if you will.
07:48And SailGP is a little bit more like, you know, the PGA Tour, always on.
07:52Does that make sense?
07:53Because I know in the olden days, like, Ted Turner did the America's Cup.
07:59Yep.
07:59And basically, like, the CEO of, this would be like Steve Cohen becoming the best first baseman
08:08and you're riding the boat, the CEO of the USGP.
08:13Yeah, for me, you know, I competed professionally for, you know, almost 20 years.
08:18And I found myself, I'd come home on a Monday from a race and I'd feel like I needed competition in my life.
08:25And as I got towards the end of my racing career, you know, I saw an opportunity to put a group together.
08:32I have a great partner in Ryan McKillen and we, you know, we bought the team from Larry.
08:36And this allows me to, you know, do things like this on a regular day here in New York City
08:43and talk to sponsors and grow our business and be competing kind of 24 hours a day when I don't have a race.
08:51Now, how many races are there a year?
08:52You go all over the world.
08:53You said the finals in Dubai.
08:55Finals are in Abu Dhabi.
08:57We also race in Dubai.
08:58There's 14 races.
09:00We're going to Geneva for the first time this year.
09:03We race in New York City, San Francisco, L.A., all over Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Rio.
09:13So it's truly a global schedule, which is awesome.
09:19Now, who are the best teams that you have to face week in, week out?
09:24Yeah, the Australians have dominated since the inception of SailGP.
09:29They have set the bar year after year.
09:33The Kiwis, you know, are right there behind them.
09:37And there's a young team from Spain, two Olympic gold medalists on their team.
09:42And they won the championship last year.
09:43I think they were, you know, kind of caught everybody by surprise just given kind of they're all young.
09:51But they're just super, super talented.
09:54So those are kind of the three top teams, in my opinion.
09:56Now, what are the odds of this becoming like the next big thing?
10:07What do you hope for this sport to become an American sports lexicon?
10:12Yeah, I think, you know, I think it's likely.
10:17I think it's already happening.
10:19You know, I think if you were to ask the average person five years ago if SailGP would have almost a million average viewers on CBS on the weekend,
10:29they would have told you that you're absolutely crazy.
10:32But that's what's happening right now.
10:34Now, are these one-on-one races or are they basically, like, everyone races and it's 16 minutes and the winner is the winner?
10:40Everyone races at the same time.
10:42So 12 votes, 12 teams, everyone racing at the same time.
10:47Usually you do four races on the Saturday.
10:49You do three on the Sunday.
10:50And then they take the top three teams and they do a finals, winner take all.
10:56And everybody kind of, the other nine teams, watch that.
11:01So it's like a tournament that basically happens within the weekend.
11:04Exactly.
11:07Well, I wish you a lot of success with this, with USGP.
11:12You know, it's interesting because, like I said, when I first heard this, I said, oh, he's going to become an American's Cup.
11:18Yeah.
11:18And that's the first thing when I think about sailing is it's, there's only one thing I think of, the American's Cup.
11:23Yeah, and I think it's important, right?
11:24Like, the America's Cup, the history of the America's Cup is, it's real, right?
11:29We've got to get that thing back.
11:30It's where, you know, it's where SailGP was born.
11:34Larry Ellison's won the America's Cup multiple times.
11:36So has Russell Coots, the two founders of the league.
11:39But they said to themselves, we have to make, if we're going to grow our sport, it's got to be commercially sustainable.
11:46It's got to be always on.
11:47You've got to know where to watch it.
11:49You've got to know, you know, who's going to be in it.
11:52And you've got to know when, right?
11:53And that's, that's the thing that the America's Cup lost track of a little bit.
11:57Yes.
11:58But, yeah.
11:59Even though we've won it back, it's gone back and forth for the last, what, 30 years or so?
12:05Yeah.
12:05We lost it for a while and got it back and lost it again.
12:09I don't think anyone has even given one thought about the America's Cup since Dennis Conner in 1987 on the cover of Sports Illustrated with Ronald Reagan.
12:17On the cover of Sports Illustrated with Ronald Reagan, right?
12:19Yeah.
12:19I mean, that was iconic.
12:21And, you know, he was also on the cover of Time Magazine and, I believe, with Reagan as well.
12:29He was, you know, he brought a country together because he challenged these billionaires to go, you know, in a sailboat race, right?
12:40And the crazy thing about it is it was billionaires.
12:42Yeah.
12:43It was literally in the 70s, it was Ted Turner racing against Rupert Murdoch.
12:49Rupert Murdoch was in Australia.
12:53Ted Turner was racing the boats for the USA.
12:56And that's how that rivalry started.
13:00Yeah.
13:00And it's still going on.
13:01Yeah.
13:02They're grumpy old men these days and they're still rivals.
13:06Bitter rivals.
13:07Yeah.
13:07I mean, he inspired people, right?
13:10I mean, that's why you're talking about it.
13:11You were inspired by what he did in the 80s.
13:14And, you know, we want to bring that back and sail GP.
13:17And we want to get American sailing to the top of the leaderboard.
13:20It's going to take some time.
13:21Yeah.
13:21It seems to me the America's Cup belongs to America.
13:24We need to get that thing back.
13:26But hopefully sail GP and US GP is a big conduit in the building of the sport.
13:35So we, I don't know, get the Cup back and have another 130-year dynasty.
13:40I like the sound of that.
13:42But thanks for joining.
13:44Thanks for having me.
13:45And I'll definitely keep an eye on the sport.
13:47Awesome.
13:56Woo!
13:56Woo!
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