Dublin’s Gaelic footballers are being hailed for their on-pitch brilliance, while the county is also leading the way when it comes to making money off it. Can its rivals hope to catch up? Sport for Business contributed to a major feature by John Meagher in the Irish Independent review section on Saturday April 30th which we reproduce here…
One could almost sense Tomás Ó Sé’s pain etched in his words. “Dublin look so far ahead of everyone else,” the former great of Kerry football wrote in this newspaper, “it’s actually quite worrying now.”
His sentiments were echoed the following day by another ex-player, Trevor Giles of Meath. “Dublin have just become dominant and I think they’re going to stay that way for a few years to come which, for a neutral, isn’t ideal. If Dublin are playing somebody, are you going to watch it? Because it’s going to be one-sided.”
The match that had both hot under the collar, last Sunday’s National League Final, was most certainly one-sided as Dublin comfortably beat Kerry by 11 points in front of a packed Croke Park. It was their fourth league title in a row and their 22nd consecutive game to remain unbeaten in all competitions. Jim Gavin’s men are red-hot favourites to retain their All-Ireland crown come September.
While it appears as though they are in a league of their own on the pitch, the Dubs are also miles ahead of everyone else when it comes to maximising the brand’s earning potential. Their five-year deal with the world’s leading insurance company, AIG, is rumoured to be worth in the region of €850,000 per annum to the county board, and they have several ‘partnerships’ in place with a variety of brands, including Toyota and Deep RiverRock. Their yearly income from sponsorship alone is estimated by one figure close to the set up to be between €1.3m and €1.5m.
Throw in the most lucrative gate receipts in the land, and it’s little wonder why the Dubs are considered to have a distinct advantage over the competition. Their elite football and hurling squads enjoy some of the best facilities of any county as well as access to the cream of Ireland’s coaching, nutritional and psychological experts.
Grassroots
Dublin’s county board insists that much of the sponsorship money filters down to its 90-odd clubs and AIG’s marketing and sponsorship manager John Gillick, who was one of the main drivers of the deal with Dublin, says the insurer has been keen from day one to build relationships with the county’s clubs and their estimated 100,000 members. “The grassroots aspect of the GAA is one of the things that makes it particularly special in Irish life and is very appealing for us,” he says.
AIG-branded hoarding is a common sight at GAA pitches all over the city and county, and Gillick says, in turn the firm provides direct funding. “AIG has a safety equipment initiative whereby it supplies safety equipment to clubs,” he says, “and we supply kit to club teams.”
There has been something in it for the fans too, whether it’s special double-decker buses laid on by the firm to bring supporters to games or discounts for club members opting to take out an insurance policy with AIG. And, Gillick adds: “AIG intentionally looks to employ both county and club players.”
The firm took over from Vodafone as Dublin sponsors in November 2013 and have placed the deal at the centre of its identity in Ireland. An enormous poster of the Dubs’ famous sky blue jersey bearing the AIG logo and the words “we’re stronger together” was emblazoned on the company’s Liffey-fronted IFSC HQ, and today anyone who calls the firm is greeted with a recording that boasts that it is “a proud sponsor of Dublin GAA”.
Acclaimed
Sponsorship consultant John Trainor, founder of the Onside agency, says the AIG-Dublin deal has been widely acclaimed in the industry. “It’s seen as a big success and the research we’ve done on it has borne that out. AIG really have been an outstanding partner and it’s clear they understand what’s required to build a brand.”
Some of its most effective advertising has highlighted its sponsorship of New Zealand rugby and there have been humorous TV ads placing All Blacks heroes such as Richie McCaw in an Irish context. Like many of today’s brands, AIG has also created its own video content, which has been enthusiastically covered by online media and shared on Twitter of Facebook. The most popular was a “multi-skills sports challenge” which pitted leading Dublin hurling and Gaelic football players – of both genders – against the cream of New Zealand’s oval ball stars.
Rob Hartnett of Sport for Business says much of Dublin’s commercial pulling power is down to county board chief executive, John Costello, and to its commercial director, Tomás ‘Mossy’ Quinn, a recently retired double All-Ireland winner with the Dubs. “They’ve managed to get big, global brands talking to a local audience,” he says. “And they’re conveying that when it comes to Dublin GAA, there’s a huge audience and, like everywhere else in the country, these are games that are rooted in communities. The grassroots dimension of the GAA is highly appealing to brands.”
Hartnett sees the draw of the club game every week. He is a member of the Cuala club in Dalkey, Co Dublin – its motto is “not just a club, a way of life” – and he coaches two girls’ teams there. “Brands can connect with local communities through sponsorship,” he insists. “It’s about far more than just appearing on the front of jerseys of elite players.”
Loadsamoney
But while brands may clamour to be part of the Dublin GAA story, including a new partner Bavaria Non-Alcoholic, less fancied counties can struggle to bring sponsorship in. Success-starved counties, such as Leitrim, must feel they are operating in a completely different universe to Loadsamoney Dubs.
In the very year that Dublin jumped from one lucrative contract with Vodafone to another with AIG, Leitrim were paid just €15,000 by a local hotel to have its name on their jerseys. Such money would quickly run out in an environment where Tipperary GAA, to name one of the more dynamic counties from a commercial viewpoint, spent more than €26,000 last year on a week-long warm-weather training camp in Spain for its hurlers.
In all, Tipperary GAA – sponsored by Elverys Intersport – spent just over €1m on its hurling and Gaelic football teams in 2015, but the huge outlay would not deliver the hoped-for success. The hurlers were beaten in the All-Ireland semi-final by Galway while the footballers were thumped by Tyrone in the third round of the qualifiers. Counties like Tipperary, third in the roll-call of All-Ireland hurling title winners, will always be more attractive to sponsors than minnows, says Tony Frawley of the 2020MBV agency.
“Brands want to support winners or the up-and-coming superstar,” he says. “So it’s a perfect fit for AIG, especially as Dublin have a number of players who transcend their sport, such as Bernard Brogan. The Kerry Group’s sponsorship of Kerry GAA could hardly be more in alignment, not least because the Kerry brand-name spells out the name of the county on their jerseys.”
Difficulties
And yet even the bigger counties have had their difficulties in attracting the sort of sponsorship money they were hoping for. Cork GAA – the last county to win the football and hurling double – reportedly struck a deal with Chill Insurance that was less than the amount they had received from previous sponsor O2. And, before Chill came on board, the county found itself without a main sponsor and its teams sported jerseys bearing a charity logo, that of the Mercy University Hospital.
John Trainor believes that for some county boards, serious thought will be given to selling the naming rights for their stadia. Cork’s Páirc Uí Chaoimh is being rebuilt and set to open for the championship next year. It could be an opportune time to sell the rights, he believes.
“Brands see naming rights as something that really works for them, and our research shows that the general public are largely not opposed to the idea and actually embrace it if there’s a sense that what has been renamed is better than what was there before – the Aviva Stadium and the 3Arena bear that out.”
Both Frawley and Hartnett believe some county boards are struggling to maximise the worth of their county’s brand and point out that without guidance from professional sponsorship gurus, they risk inking deals that represent great value for money for brands, but not for counties.
Anniversary
This summer marks the 25th anniversary since logos first appeared on jerseys and counties have taken the cue from other sports and developed partnerships with companies, such as that between Galway GAA and energy drink Red Bull.
Yet, potentially lucrative deals remain out of bounds for them, especially when it comes to kit manufacturers. While Munster and Leinster rugby benefit from attractive contracts with, respectively, Adidas and Canterbury, GAA teams are prohibited from wearing playing gear manufactured outside of Ireland. Consequently, O’Neills have the lion’s share of the market.
Yet, Dublin’s county board spent considerable time earlier this year exploring the possibility of licensing some off-pitch kit to a big-name international sportswear manufacturer. In the end, it released a statement saying it was happy to continue its long-standing relationship with O’Neills.
But the Dubs have still some way to go to rival the commercial power of those other boys in blue – Leinster Rugby. Rob Hartnett says both the length of the rugby season and its international profile help it steal a march on Dublin GAA. “It also has a far bigger social media reach,” he notes, “with far more followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook. This is an area that Dublin will want to improve and from a commercial point of view it makes sense, because it can enable the brands they partner with to reach out to people directly.”
GAA sponsorship in numbers
€850,000
The estimated yearly value of AIG’s sponsorship of Dublin GAA, the highest in the country
5
The number of years that the AIG-Dublin contract was set to run when signed in 2013, but the arrangement will almost certainly be extended
€1m
The reported amount of the deal Chill Insurance signed with Cork GAA last year — to be paid out over three years
40,000
The estimated number of Dublin jerseys sold each year, a figure that rises sharply when a new kit is introduced. This is the third year that the AIG-sponsored jersey has been worn
€2m
The amount reportedly spent by the Dublin county board in preparing teams in 2011, the year they won their first All-Ireland football title in 16 years
25
The number of years where brand logos have been permitted on GAA jerseys
3
The number of sponsors/partners the GAA have signed up with for both the football and hurling championships
€15,000
The figure that Leitrim reportedly sold their sponsorship rights for three years ago, a figure that’s thought to be the lowest of any county
This feature was written by John Meagher and originally published in the Irish Independent Review section on April 30th 2016.
