American Sailing League

I recently discovered this organization and was pleasantly suprised. It seems they beat me to it. This is almost exactly the type of event I've been wanting to organize!
San Francisco Chronicle Story
I found out about the ASL before the event and was curious from the get go. It seems they have a great start to a successful annual event. They have alot of the necessary components to a successful sailing event:
-Exciting Boats
-Excellent spectator viewing
-Pre-populated area for guaranteed spectators

I'm not entirely sure the media coverage they were able to get but for a first time event it seemed rather successful from my perspective (thousands of miles away).

Check out their website for more information and some GREAT pictures.

I really just wonder what their growth plan is. Obviously with the name, "American Sailing League" they plan to make the event nationwide. I just wonder how. I thought about this a lot today and would like to present some of my ideas.

I have a lot to say and am going to present it in sort of a series of how I see a nation wide sailing circuit running. This type of circuit would be designed to appeal to the average american sports fan and would not be a niche sport. Today's segment:

THE SAILORS
Obviously this is the soul of the sport. In the past (and present), the individual sailors in sailing events have rarely been publiczed. Why? Mainly because there is not much of a story to tell. Sailors are typically well of, well educated, and good looking. This is marketable!! For example, I recently was following the Transatlantic Race and was interested because I like ocean racing but not particularly interested. Then a couple of weeks after the race I saw a video that highlighted some of the sailors and their history. After that I really wished I would have followed it more! I knew who was favored to win, who won it last year, etc. Unfortunately, sailors are typically nice to each other but you can still create drama. For example, when Spithill and Coutts race each other in RC44 events and especially match racing I get excited because they are on the same team, etc. Also, when Larry Ellison raced against Allinghi in some event I was excited. If you can sell these types of backgrounds on the sailors, they will be a lot more interesting. For example, if two sailors are previous college sailors, talk about their head to head races and emphasize their wins and losses. Try and find drama between the sailors or in the individual sailors lives and tell their stories. The fans will appreciate it and so will the sponsors. The sport needs some recognizable names so create some!

Also, they sailors need to be local. They need to represent their teams. If you start shipping in all of these down under sailors it's not exactly an "American" event. I know this is where most of the good skiff sailors are and you shouldn't necessarily exclude them but it needs to be dealt with. In America, sports are localized. I don't know of another country where college sports are just as big as the pro sports. Why? Because of the school spirit. If you can create city spirit and team spirit then you can create fans. You will not have corporation spirit. No one will root for Team Sprint every time. But they will root for and watch Team San Fran or a particular sailor every year. This is why you have to sell the sailors and the local teams.

I would prefer for the sailors to be amateur athletes. In my Texas circuit idea, the sailors are all college/just out of college and not professionals. Partly this is because there are not that many professional sailors and their aren't a lot from each city. For example if a city or yacht club wanted to create a team they couldn't afford to pay 3-4 professional sailors and a coach to stay in the city and train or compete. But a large yacht club could use their existing coaches to train a team of locals. This would add some excitement I believe because the younger sailors will likely have less of a "storied" background as the professionals but there are some drawbacks. The younger sailors will be less skilled, likely have other commitments, and will be harder to sell to some sponsors. A professional sailor is much safer for a company to invest in.

If these conditions are met, I believe the event itself will be much more successful. Right now it seems that many events focus a lot of solely on the boat and not the crew for the reasons I've stated. But with my idea (skiff sailing) there is a small crew so it is easier to focus on the sailors themselves. Fans want to connect with the sailors, not the boats.