I was watching soccer republic the other night and noticed that soccer grounds in Ireland like Drogheda United's are plastered with advertising/sponsorship boards all over the place. They must be generating plenty of much needed funds yearly when you add them all up.
Meath GAA will be looking to raise many a million over the next few years to fund all our yearly costs and hopefully finishing Dunganny and major upgrades to Pairc Tailteann. So why is it a soccer ground that has an average attendance of under 1000 a match over their league attract such big sponsorship and we in Navan can't?
Is it a case of the county board being lazy or is it down to the fact RTE show TV highlights of every league match they (Drogheda) play and a few live every year? I really feel we could be bringing in a lot more revenue if we shifted our weight. And while we have our financial woes they are nothing like what Drogheda have gone (and are going) through so they've fought for all that sponsorship because their survival was a stake.
Be nice to see a similar drive in Meath football although I acknowledge the new county board have made big strides over the old one. Anyone have any opinions on this?
Drogheda are guaranteed 16/17 league matches a year, plus some Cup/League Cup/Setanta Cup/Leinster senior cup matches.
Coupled with that they arent doing badly recently, last season managing a unique achievement of losing the finals of all 3 major cups aswell as playing in the Europa League. They'll have a good few of these matches televised on RTE and Setanta so that would increase the exposure even more.
Meath can only guarantee two O'Byrne Cup matches and three Division 2 League matches a year to a sponsor. Everything else is down to chance and depends on the performance of the team. I know its popular to slate the LOI but in reality the exposure Meath get in PT really isnt any better.
Another thing on the Drogheda example though is that their deal to name United Park "Hunky Dorys Park" lapsed after last season and was not renewed, things arent all rosy there either.
Good points and would make you wonder the benefit of RTE actually bothering to show highlights of all the division 2 league games even if they only showed 2-3mins per game. Financially the counties would all get better and more sponsorship money.
Would like to ask you about naming our ground. Breffni Park was renamed Kingspan Breffni Park, would anyone object to us selling our naming rights to Tayto and rename it something like Tayto Pairc Tailteann, Tailteann Tayto Pairc, Pairc Tayto, Tailteann Tayto etc
I'd imagine the CB would get a few quid for a 5/10/15/20 year deal. And if selling our should meant the elderly could sit on actual seats for our home matches I'd be all for it.
I'm rarely a die hard traditionalist but wouldnt like to rename PT. At the same time if the money was down on the table and there were no other options I'd probably agree to it.
I dont like going the avenue of sponsorship being everything though, if you've ever seen the programmes for LOI matches they are stuffed to the gills with ads and sponsorships. Everything is sponsored, each match, the match ball, every player, main sponsors, official partners etc.
Its definitely not a case of loads of companies vying to be associated with a premium product anyway, often its family members or fan clubs simply trying to keep the club alive. To me it looks tacky and desperate, but since without it the clubs would collapse, it has to be done. We're in a hurry for money like them, but less of a hurry, so plastering with advertising wouldnt be my first option.
In short I dont like excessive sponsorship, but if all other options are exhausted then we should go ahead with it.