Electric Ireland has launched its 2013 sponsorship of the Minor All Ireland Football and Hurling Championships. The focus for the campaign will be on showcasing stars of the under age game that have gone on to success not only in gaelic games but also in soccer, rugby, business and music.
‘The Electric Ireland Minor Championships: Where Major Stars are Made’ was launched in Croke Park with a crop of current players from around the country and Sean Cavanagh and Michael Fennelly who made the transition from Minor to All Ireland Senior glory in the past decade.
The Minor Championships in GAA are given a higher profile than their equivalent in any other sport here in Ireland or further afield.
Minor finals are always scheduled to take place as the curtain raiser for the All Ireland Final and reaching that stage guarantees tickets within the county for the biggest days in the Irish sporting calendar.
One interesting sidebar to this is the work that needs to be undertaken on pitch advertising and signage involving alcohol sponsors like Guinness on the day of the All Ireland Hurling Final.
As the principal sponsor of the Senior Championship Guinness takes up substantial physical assets around Croke Park on the day. Because though of the voluntary code of non promotion of alcohol to minors, all of that has to be covered up during the first half of the day’s activities.
Among the other stars that might feature in the series are Shane Long of West Brom and Ireland who represented Tipperary at Minor Hurling and Niall Quinn who went on to a successful soccer career and is now head of Q-Sat, a broadband business with interests in Ireland and Africa.
“We are delighted to sponsor the GAA Football and Hurling Minor Championships again in 2013,” said Jim Dollard, General Manager of Electric Ireland. “We believe that players that play Gaelic games at Minor county level have the world at their feet and we want to inspire them to have the power to do with it what they want.”
GAA President Liam Ó Néill added:, “The Electric Ireland Minor Championships are highly valued in our stable of competitions and the fact they give our young players a first real chance to represent their county at national level in a competitive championship environment gives them a special status within the GAA community.
“We are delighted to have the support of Electric Ireland in helping to promote these competitions in a proactive and exciting way as part of our ongoing efforts to generate even more interest in the games. Many of our current stars have progressed through the minor competitions and we are very much looking forward to continuing this work in 2013 and the years ahead.”
2013 is the second year of a five year sponsorship deal between Electric Ireland and the GAA.
The company also sponsors Hockey and was the official team sponsor of Team Ireland at the London Olympics in 2012.
Read more of our recent news and analysis of Gaelic Games here.
From Minor to Major with Electric Ireland
