Sponsor spending to reach €135m

IRISH sponsorship spend is expected to hit a record high of €135 million this year as a number of high-profile sports tie-in opportunities and venue naming contracts come up for consideration.

The forecast has come from Dublin-based sponsorship consultancy, Onside Sponsorship which surveyed — during the final quarter of last year — 50 sponsorship-focused groups including sponsors, agencies and rights holders.

If the forecast spend for this year is realised it would represent growth of 20% on last year, when around 113m was spent on sponsorship opportunities.

This year’s potential boom will be fuelled by a number of significant opportunities hitting the market. These include the Beijing Olympics, soccer’s EU Championships and, closer to home, two venue naming rights opportunities — the new Lansdowne Road stadium and the refurbished Point Depot.

Also expected to fuel spend from companies will be the restructured sponsorship models for the All Ireland Football and Hurling Championships.

Referring to industry research, Onside Sponsorship’s managing director, John Trainor said: “The principle challenge facing sponsorship practitioners was the spiralling costs of rights and the knock-on limitations this imposes on a sponsor’s ability to adequately leverage these rights.”