Ian Mallon: IRFU creates ‘a self-perpetuating commercial virtuous circle’
Conor Murray and Jack Conan celebrate the series win over New Zealand.
IRISH Rugby must now build on its “monumental and unprecedented” All Blacks series win to create “a commercial momentum and encourage even greater investment in the sport”, the IRFU’s chief commercical officer has said.
In an interview with The Pitch, Padraig Power emphasised: “Professional sport is about winning and the more money you invest, the better your chances.”
Irish Rugby’s commercial boss was, of course, quick to acknowledge that all of that investment is nothing without the “talent and hard work” of the Irish team and team management who made history over the past number of weeks in New Zealand.
Commercial chiefs are generally ‘cup-half-empty’ kinds of people, and for the IRFU it is on to the next phase which will include a strategy to encourage new sponsors in emerging markets.
With up to 17 different sponsors across the same number of industries, there is still room to expand.
The IRFU will now explore the Pharma, Fintech and Health & Wellbeing industries as it looks to bring in new partners to join the suite of gold-plated associates already basking in the newfound glory where Irish rugby finds itself.
“This unprecedented win has given the country a great lift which is marvellous and creates great positive momentum for the Irish rugby brand,” explained Power.
That brand value will “inspire kids (both boys and girls) to take up our sport”.
If investment and funding are crucial in sport, so too are structures and systems, continued Power.
“Underpinning the result is great planning and having systems in place — structures and processes — and all of that costs money.
“Results like this are not possible without the heavyweight support of all of the stakeholders who contribute to Irish rugby,” he said.
“This includes all of our sponsors - especially our main sponsors, Vodafone and Canterbury — our 10-year ticket holders, corporate box holders, and all those who purchase tickets to matches every season.”
Power is also quick to pay tribute to “all those people in clubs and schools and on committees who volunteer day-in, day-out, to help develop players and drive our game forward.
“For our sponsors and partners, this series win gives them a stronger platform for their messaging — in sports-mad Ireland we all love winning.”
The appetite to bring new partners into the fold is a constant desire for Power, particularly in a business (of sports governance) where profits are not the goal.
“The IRFU is a not-for-profit organisation and all of the money that is generated is reinvested back into the game. Hopefully the win can help us attract new sponsors which will lead to more funding going into rugby.
“We are trying to create a self-perpetuating commercial virtuous circle whereby more success will lead to more investment and therefore more players so that we can unearth more players like Johnny Sexton, Keith Earls, and Caelen Doris and continue to be successful.”
THE IRFU has a suite of sponsors the envy of all sports with Guinness, Aer Lingus, Energia, Aon, DHL, Aldi, and PWC leading the line along with new disrupters such as investment and tech companies — TritonLake and Kroll.
A significant piece of business for any front office at a sports organisation is ticket sales, even for a body like the IRFU which is almost always guaranteed full houses for home games.
Mouth-watering ties against South Africa and Australia are coming in the Autumn International series, with a game against Fiji which the IRFU want to turn into a family occasion and which there are some tickets still available.
In the New Year, the big names keep coming with England and France at the Aviva for the Guinness Six Nations, and then there is the matter of the Rugby World Cup in France — but we’ll go there again soon.
How things have changed from the dark days of Covid, when New Zealand also marked a high time for Irish sport with the victory over the All Blacks in the Aviva last November.
Power points to the importance of the Sport Ireland payments through Government during the pandemic, which in particular kept the provinces afloat, but once again he is quick to mark the support of the commercial partners.
“We’re really grateful to the sponsors through those torrid times and the broadcast of games, TV revenue was really important as we took a huge financial hit,” he added.
It’s hard to believe that in the space of a year, Andy Farrell was under pressure and Irish rugby was looking at an uncertain autumn, perhaps without crowds.
But then came Triple Crown success, a series win in New Zealand, and the arrival of Padraig Power’s favourite word — “Momentum”.
Let’s see where it brings Irish Rugby from even these dizzying heights.
€100m value of ‘biggest Pro-Am in the world’
July’s JP McManus Pro-Am at Adare Manor raised more than €100m, The Pitch can reveal. The extraordinary figure, based on the latest tally by organisers, is 70% of the total money raised before this year’s event — going back since 1990.
Up to the most recent event, a total of €140m has been raised for various charities in the Mid-West, through the previous five competitions.
While the sheer scale of the money taken in this year is remarkable, another set of figures will cause considerable interest.
The Pitch understands that the JP McManus Pro-Am event also experienced a greater average daily viewership on television than the Irish Open, which took place in the days leading up to the Adare Manor competition.
Virgin Media experienced an average audience of 65,000 viewers across the Monday, with 56,000 taking in the action on Tuesday.
This compared with an average RTÉ audience of 35,000 on the previous Thursday and 49,000 on Friday for the Mount Juliet Irish Open, with those figures rising to 67,000 on Saturday and 56,000 on Sunday.
It must be noted that star attraction encourages big numbers and while the traditional television audience for golf is quite low, the lure of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy playing in a non-ranking pro-am still provides greater interest than a DP World Tour event.
NBC Sports and the Golf Channel in the US also broadcast the event, in a relatively unprecedented departure for the golfing networks to show a professional-amateur competition.
What will be frustrating for the DP World Tour is that despite a spectacularly set-up course at Mount Juliet, and sell-out crowds, none of golf’s biggest stars opted to play the Irish Open, apart from a handful including Shane Lowry, Pádraig Harrington, and Seamus Power.
This is not something that will concern the burgeoning success of the JP McManus Pro-Am where Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas joined the likes of LIV Golf rebels Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau in a field featuring 11 of the top 12 players in the world.
The Tiger factor is the obvious draw for what BBC 5 Live described as ‘the biggest Pro-Am in the world’, as crowds five and six deep lined the fairways to catch sight of Woods in action ahead of his appearance at The Open.
It was also the perfect social and competitive event for players from the US to acclimatise in Ireland before making their way to Scotland for The Open at St Andrews last weekend.
This year’s Pro-Am was won by American Xander Schauffele who shot 10-under-par, including a course record -8 on the opening day. Pádraig Harrington matched that score on Day Two, while Schauffele went on to win the Scottish Open a week later.
Tickets went on sale in April 2018, priced at €50 for both days. They stayed at that price for over a year, before being increased to €100, before that batch sold out in the summer of 2019.
Uniquely, passes for the JP McManus Pro-Am came in the form of a cap — with 40,000 caps sold in total — admitting the holder to both days of tournament play.
This year’s event was effectively used by Adare Manor and its golf course staff, as well as the Ryder Cup organisers, as a dry run for the Europe vs USA matchplay competition in 2027. In all, 750 event volunteers provided crowd-marshalling and traffic management at the course.
The next slot for the JP McManus Pro-Am would be 2027, but that date will be changed due to the hosting of the Ryder Cup at Adare Manor that same year.
