Figures revealed on new car sales in the first ten days of the year are a big positive for sport with an increase in registrations of as much as 43%.
With major manufacturers like Toyota and Volkswagen involved at a high level across a multitude of sports this is a strong positive indicator for the sponsorship market.
Toyota lead the way in sales. They withdrew from a long term Munster Rugby shirt sponsorship in 2013 but did sign on as partners of Cricket Ireland and has ambassador partnerships with Katie Taylor, Fionnuala Britton and Paul O’Connell.
Hyundai have climbed from fourth last year to second in the early returns for the new year. It is a partner of the FIFA World Cup and its Kia brand will be seen in the coming weeks as headline partner of the Australian Open Tennis.
Volkswagen are perhaps the most active sporting sponsor among the brands and its Audi marque has also shown well in early figures from the industry. With a variety of soccer and rugby partnerships in place, the brand has also supported golf and GAA through different brands including Skoda with Tipperary and Volkswagen itself with Leinster Rugby.
Renault were announced last week as the new sponsors of all Westmeath inter county GAA teams and Ford has a long standing relationship with the FAI through sponsorship of the Ford FAI Cup.
This is all on top of Vauxhall signing up to a long term lead sponsorship of the Northern Ireland FA last year which will bring them through to the World Cup Finals in Russia in 2018.
The Society of the Irish Motor Industry is forecasting that 2014 new car sales will bounce back to 85,000 from a low of 74,000 in 2013 and this can only be a positive for sport at every level from national to local.
