Bank recognised as football sponsors

THE Bank of Ireland Football Championship is now the number one spontaneously-associated sponsorship in Ireland, with 47% of adults correctly identifying the bank as the sponsor of the 2001 Football Championship, up nine percentage points from 2000.

This is compared to the Hurling Championship, which is second in association, with 42% of adults correctly identifying Guinness as the sponsors.

The top four Irish sponsorships are: 1, Bank of Ireland Football Championship 47%; 2, Guinness Hurling Championship 42%; 3, Murphy’s Irish Open 35%; 4, Budweiser Irish Derby 33%.

The research was conducted by Irish Marketing Surveys in an omnibus survey. Questions were administered to a nationally representative sample of 1,200 adults aged 15 years and upwards.

During the 2001 Bank of Ireland Championship the GAA earned a staggering 27,934,237.73 in gate receipts from both football and hurling, averaging 1,269,738.07 per week to the association. The four football provincial finals yielded 10,157,904.63.

The All-Ireland Qualifiers, which were introduced to the Bank of Ireland Football Championship last year for the first time, brought in 6,348,690.39 in extra gate receipts.