Hockey Ireland faces a massive year for the sport with the Men’s team qualified for the Rio Olympics and the Women now playing in the top flight of European Hockey.
EY came on board last year in support of the National League but sponsorship has been slower to materialise at international level.
The loss to NUI Galway of CEO Mike Heskin late last year might have meant a speed bump in the commercial element of the road to Rio but hopefully that will now begin to ease with the announcement that Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles are coming on board.
They will provide Hockey Ireland with an Amarok and Caddy to assist with the continued successful development of hockey in Ireland.
The senior men’s team will become the first Irish hockey team to compete at an Olympics since 1908 and the first team of any sport to represent Ireland at an Olympic Games since 1948.
Recent achievements also include the senior women’s team beating America, ranked 5th in the world at the time, for the first time in Ireland’s history and the team being promoted to the top division in European hockey in 2015.
Irish men’s goalkeeper David Harte was announced as the FIH (International Hockey Federation) Goalkeeper of the Year as well as Irish head coach Craig Fulton named as the FIH Men’s Coach of the Year.
“It is a very exciting time for hockey in Ireland, particularly with the Senior Men’s squad going to the Olympics for the first time in 108 years,” said Hockey Ireland CEO Rob Johnson.
“We are very excited to partner with a global brand such as Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, and their sponsorship is a vote of confidence in Hockey Ireland as we continue to grow.”
“This partnership will benefit all levels of our organisation and we are very much looking forward to building on this relationship going forward”.
“We are delighted to get on board with Hockey Ireland and become an official sponsor,” added Alan Bateson, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Director.
“The sport is going from strength to strength at the moment and we are thrilled to be involved and to supply Hockey Ireland with a Caddy which has been Ireland’s bestselling compact van for the last 10 years and an award winning Amarok.”
“On behalf of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, I would like to wish the Hockey Ireland teams all the best for the year ahead and we look forward to supporting them and working together in the future.”
Given the current high spend of Volkswagen Group in terms of promoting the brand and repairing reputation damage suffered lat year, it may be that this heralds the start of a larger relationship with the sport.
Volkswagen remains involved at dealer level with domestic soccer here and remains the official partner of Irish Rugby though it did step away from a partnership with Leinster Rugby last year. Sports sponsorship remains a vibrant market for auto manufacturers with Nissan involved today with Olympian Rob Heffernan and Toyota signing on for four more years as a partner of Cricket Ireland.
