GAA beats downturn byre-signing big brands

GUINNESS and Etihad Airways have signed up to remain as associate sponsors of the All-Ireland senior hurling championship for 2012.

The GAA’s stadium and commercial director Peter McKenna confirmed the companies will again join Centra as a backer of the competition after their previous contracts had elapsed at the end of the 2011 campaign. However, McKenna intimated this could be Guinness’ last season sponsoring the hurling championship in its current guise after 18 years of association.

“Guinness are there for 2012 and we’re very happy with that. They’re on board for the year and are looking at taking a new direction. We will use that time to see how we can come back together in a new environment but there is no immediate pressure. Etihad are staying with us and we’ll be looking at widening the exposure of their brand in the GAA. It means all our existing championship sponsors are with us for 2012, which is very positive considering it’s such a different market out there. It proves that they see great value in the association product.”

Ulster Bank, Super Valu and Eircom remain the associate football championship sponsors. McKenna also hopes to have the GAA rooftop tour operation up and running by May after the planning process had been delayed. The initiative was given the go-ahead by An Bord Pleanála last month, although Croke Park had hoped to launch the tours on St Patrick’s Day.

“We have just opened tenders for construction,” said McKenna. “It’s a bit like the floodlights; we’ll build them all on the ground and crane them into position before laying them down.”

On the matter of Hawk-Eye, McKenna doesn’t expect to hear from the English company about installing their technology into Croke Park until its trial debut in the Leinster SF championship on Sunday, June 3.

“They were here for the test scenario and there were no issues as such. It’s proven to work and everyone’s happy with the data they got back.”

Croke Park are still awaiting word from the NFL about potentially staging a regular season game later this year or in 2013. The Dublin 3 venue was visited by NFL officials in December as well as Frankfurt’s Commerzbank-Arena, Munich’s Olympic Stadium and Murrayfield in Edinburgh. Pittsburgh Steelers owner and the US ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney said the delegation were impressed by Croke Park.

“It’s looking like February but I suppose no news is good news. To be fair, the ambassador was hugely supportive of the bid and couldn’t have been more helpful.”

Croke Park also intend ramping up their events programme with more focus on their Cuisle nights, which incorporate story, music and dance in a show extolling hurling’s heritage.

“We’re going to develop some of the things we started last year and [will also] be going with Fever Pitch [All-Ireland final eve concert at Croke Park] again.”