The All Ireland Ladies Football Final took place at Croke Park on Sunday. It was a close game played out before a record attendance. Here are six things from the day that made it interesting from a Sports Business perspective…
1. The attendance at Croke Park was 34,445, a record for not only Ladies Football but also for any women’s sporting event ever held in Ireland, or in Europe through out 2016. This was despite the realised threat of torrential rain and the added financial pressure on Dublin fans facing three All Ireland Finals on consecutive weekends at Croke Park.
2. Lidl’s #SeriousSupport campaign can take a substantial degree of credit for this with billboard, radio and television advertising promoting the final and the company’s support of the sport throughout the summer and especially in the weeks leading up to the final.
3. TG4 remain the long term supporter of the All Ireland Championship with Lidl owning the sponsorship rights to the early season National League. It did not feel like that though with the idea of partnership very much in evidence around the Stadium. TG4 had the flags which added colour to the day but Lidl had a massive banner on Hill 16 and a half share of the perimeter advertising around the pitch.
4. That non ownership of the Championship rights did allow Cork sponsors and brand rivals of Lidl, Supervalu, to mount an activation campaign among the crowd outside Croke Park with promotional staff wearing branded gear taking photographs for fans to share on social media.
5. Dublin sponsor AIG’s support of all four codes in the capital enabled the brand to have a strong presence now across three rather than just one Sunday in September. The support has been genuine throughout with stars from the Women’s team featuring throughout in promotional activity under the #BackingEveryStep banner.
6. The controversy surrounding a point that was not given, one that ultimately decided the game is down to the fact that Hawkeye was one service that the Ladies Gaelic Football Association does not take when hiring the stadium for the big day.
The Association, despite such close ties at club level throughout the country is not part of the GAA and rents out the facility like any other commercial organisation. This anomaly has long been sought to be changed so that all four of the main elements of gaelic games should come under a single umbrella but there has been a strong resistance amid the administration of the Ladies game. It is likely that few outside the corridors of power might even recognise that such a split exists but if it did not surely all the facilities would have been available and an unnecessary shadow on an otherwise great day could have been avoided.
