The Pitch: Three million reasons why stadium booze ban won’t wash
The thre Autumn Internationals and three Six Nations matches at the Aviva Stadium will have seen in excess of €2m being paid out for pints alone. Picture: Jan Kruger/Getty Images
A ban on alcohol at the Aviva Stadium for rugby internationals – even during the 80 minutes of play – would cost the IRFU and its venue operators millions of euro in lost revenue.
A call in recent days to ban bar service during games – to keep punters in their seats – no matter how well-articulated, does not consider the commercial or revenue implications of such a blanket move.
The Pitch estimates that hospitality caterers Levy UK+I has taken in €2.2m for Six Nations and Autumn Series matches since last November – with an average income of €3m expected over a full international season.
Such calls don’t account for the complex contractual and pouring rights agreements in place between Compass (the parent arm of Levy) and the Stadium company which runs the Aviva on behalf of the IRFU (and FAI).
Nor does it take into consideration the clear demand for such hospitality services from rugby supporters, who during the past two rugby windows have spent record amounts of cash on beer and food (an expected +10% on previous comparable totals).
Figures revealed to The Pitch following last November’s autumn internationals show that the average rugby supporter spends big when he or she gets to the Aviva Stadium – in fact more than twice as much as the average soccer fan.
Levy UK+I revealed that for every €3 a football spectator pays out, once inside the ground, a rugby attendee invests €7 on drink and food – mainly on beer.
This equates to more than €1m paid at the tills during the three Autumn Internationals against the €150,000 paid by Republic of Ireland supporters at the Portugal World Cup qualifier.
In all, rugby and soccer supporters attending the four games last November bought 190,000 pints of beer – 100,000 pints of Guinness and 90,000 pints of lager or cider.
Based on rugby-only figures, the three Autumn Internationals and three Six Nations matches at the Aviva Stadium will have seen in excess of €2m being paid out for pints alone.
With up to eight home internationals in the Aviva Stadium in a given year, this comes close to €3m per annum, and there’s not a business in the country that can afford to leave that sort of cash on the table – not even rugby.
If anything there is a concentrated push to sell more hospitality, with a significant effort by the Aviva Stadium and Levy to get rugby fans into the venue early to soak up the atmosphere and to enjoy the facilities, and to leave late.
It follows the US model which encourages fans into stadia for as much to enjoy the various delights on offer, as for the sporting action on the pitch.
A key proponent of the US fan experience is Arthur Blank, the owner of the Atlanta Falcons. Blank has even reduced the price of beer, hotdogs, and nachos at the Mercedes Benz stadium resulting in increased revenues, as fans spent more time and money in the $1.5bn venue.
While Levy or Compass are never going to pull down the price of their food and drink – it has already increased since lockdown - their entire model is based on increasing revenues, not closing access to paying customers.
Those calling for a ban on alcohol haven’t explained how the half-time rush will work, either, where you would likely have hordes of thirsty patrons rushing from their seats long before half-time to get a good position in the bar queue, returning to the bowl long after the second half has started.
Those grumbling about atmosphere at the Aviva are wrongly taking pot-shots at the new rugby audience, which is indeed largely made up corporate types, or that highly insulting phrase – day-trippers.
The reality is that the modern rugby ticket-holder goes to matches to be part of an occasion and to be entertained, even if that means forking out at least €6.20 a pint.
Whatever the various arguments about atmosphere – it’s got nothing to do with the booze, and more to do with what rugby clubs are doing with their tickets and why they’re selling them on in the first place.
And that’s an entirely different debate.
An initial five-year headline sponsorship agreement in sport is pretty much unheard of.
Commercial partners usually dip into such large investments tentatively on a two to three-year cycle, with an option to extend after the initial deal.
So it was with considerable shock that the Camogie Association has found itself as the happy recipient of a golden handcuffs partnership which has locked them in with Glen Dimplex until the 2027 season – a lifetime by commercial contract standards.
The seven-figure deal features one of the newest and most intriguing figures in sports sponsorship – a mother of three, grandmother of 10 and now benefactor to tens of thousands of camogie players.
Carmel Naughton – who is in her “very late 70s” – produced a deal which marries a complex hybrid of bundle of philanthropic, commercial and branding activations in a unique investment.
The Pitch understands that Naughton invested some of her own wealth, along with an investment by Glen Dimplex – the family firm - which will see all marketing and sponsorship assets returning to the electrical products firm.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Naughton revealed that the investment follows a life’s love of camogie which was nurtured growing up in County Monaghan.
“We certainly don’t do (the sponsorship) for thanks but we do it for what we hope is for the good of camogie, and in a small way the good of the country,” she told The Pitch from her Florida base.
As a player in the 1950s and 1960s Carmel Naughton was forced to endure the sort of conditions, that even by the standards of today’s still improving female sporting landscape, are scarcely believable.
“We made our own uniforms, which consisted of a short mustard skirt and big thick woolly tights, (much to disapproval of some),” she recalls.
The deal came together following a conversation between Carmel Naughton and Commercial Director of the GAA, Peter McKenna, “some years back”, in which Croke Park facilitated and supported the concept into full scale activation with the Camoige Association.
Once the finer points of the contract were worked out, the way was set for one of the longest initial headline sponsorships in sport and one which positions the association as one of the most secure in the long-term, in Irish sport.
Nielsen, the analytics firm that provides audience data to large parts of the sport and media industry, has announced an agreement that will see it acquired for approximately €14.5m.
Nielsen numbers are the most valuable source of data for broadcasters and agencies to determine the commercial value of a sport. It has been purchased by a US private equity consortium led by Evergreen Coast Capital and Brookfield Business Partners, in an all cash transaction, which also includes a €5m assumption of debt.
Basketball Ireland has made a significant ‘front-office’ appointment with the hiring of Bruce Wood as its new Head of Commercial and Brand.
Wood has previously worked with the Olympic Federation of Ireland and Paralympics Ireland and will be an intriguing appointment in a sport which he joins from JACC Sports Distributors, where he has worked with the IRFU, FAI, Munster Rugby, Leinster Rugby and Dublin GAA. He has also worked with global brands Canterbury, Nike, and Umbro.
