Sponsor shift won’t cost us, claims Cooney

GAA president Christy Cooney has insisted that the Association has not lost out financially despite having to change one of its three football championship sponsors mid-deal.

SuperValu was yesterday unveiled as the company which would take up the baton from Toyota who have decided to end their link with the competition two years into a three-season contract.

Though no figures were forthcoming, it is believed that each of the three original sponsors parted company with over €4m at the time and Cooney has declared his satisfaction with the latest round of negotiations.

“It is in line (financially), absolutely. We have a strong brand and we take pride in that. That brand is invaluable to the Association and is something that, even in the economic climate, is very valuable. We are very pleased with our negotiations with SuperValu.”

The new deal, which is being co-funded by SuperValu’s 231 store retailers throughout the country, will run for three years.

That leaves it out of sync with the Ulster Bank and Vodafone deals which end after the coming campaign.

How that affects the GAA’s relatively new multi-sponsor format remains to be seen but Cooney was adamant that it would not have any implications for future negotiations with existing and potential backers.

“No. We have a very strong association with Vodafone and Ulster Bank. There is no intention within the association to change the type of sponsorship arrangement that we have for both hurling and football.”

The president was unwilling to discuss the details of RTÉ’s co-sponsorship of the hurling championship, which had been the source of some conjecture, but the state broadcaster announced later that they would not be renewing their interest.

The two-year deal with which RTÉ was associated came to an end after the 2009 season but both Etihad and Guinness have signalled their intention to remain on board in the years to come.

Hurling in general would appear to be in line for a makeover with reports emerging over the weekend that a major marketing campaign is to be launched in the coming months.

The Hurling Committee, which is a sub-group of the National Coaching and Development Committee, has been preparing a general strategy and the marketing campaign will be part of their findings.

“Until that strategy is brought before us and processed, I won’t be making any statement on it,” said Cooney.

“They are due to make a presentation before Coiste Bainisti on what needs to be done with hurling in the future.”

In other news, Cooney confirmed that Croke Park has responded to correspondence from the Limerick county board concerning the ongoing stand-off with Justin McCarthy and former senior hurling panellists.

A decision will be taken in the coming days as to the best course of action and whether the GAA’s top officials will become involved. Cooney has stated previously that all parties must be amenable to talks before any intervention.

Another decision due to be taken in the coming months is that regarding the future of the Interprovincials which have been existing on life support for a number of years now.

“The situation is that we have asked counties to consider it. It was on the agenda for last Saturday’s Central Council meeting but we didn’t deal with it,” the president explained.

“The reason was that we wanted to give counties an understanding of exactly what is involved here with the costing of it and the structure of it.

“We will have to decide whether we want to continue with it or not and it is really down to the counties and the provincial counties to decide whether they want it or not.”