No ‘TMO’ planned for Hawk Eye at Croker
Although the mechanics of the score detection technology are still being worked on, there will be no human interface involved. While the exact process has yet to be finalised, it’s understood Hawk Eye will communicate the validity of a scoring attempt to the referee, and possibly the players and crowd via the stadium’s two big screens.
Unlike a rugby referee, who consults the TMO, the GAA referee won’t be responsible for calling on Hawk Eye to adjudicate whether a score is good or not.
The system made famous by its use at the Wimbledon tennis championship will begin its two-year pilot for championship matches at Croke Park, starting with the Leinster SFC quarter-final between Wexford and the winners of Laois and Longford on June 3.
It forms part of a provincial last-eight double-header, with All-Ireland champions Dublin taking on the winners of Westmeath and Louth.
It’s believed the system has had a number of teething issues but nothing to suggest it won’t be ready.
Meanwhile, sponsorship expert John Trainor claims some players have succeeded in creating brands for themselves. The managing director of Onside Sponsorship says the popularity of certain footballers and hurlers is very strong.
On Twitter last week, Bernard Brogan discussed the possibility of staging his own training camps over Easter with team-mate Eamonn Fennell.
“There are definitely players who are managing to create a brand for themselves but you’re probably talking in the 20s or 30s relative to the numbers who are actually playing the game,” said Trainor.
Trainor sees the Dublin football brand as powerful after last year’s All-Ireland football success. “I’d see them as an industry, coming together and saying, ‘Let’s build the Dublin team summer camp’ or creating a website or some other product that can be commercialised.”
Although Sligo finally named a new sponsor, Radisson Blu, this week, Down remain without one and will wear gear emblazoned with their old backers’ logo. Trainor suggested some counties are not equipped to sell the commodity worth of their teams.
“It’s probably a result of a difficulty to demonstrate the business case for some sponsors. We do a survey every year where we establish how are the fans of various teams and down to the last person you can actually quantify who says, ‘My GAA team is...’
“The people who sell the county teams need to be armed with that type of information and intelligence to help them when they go out to make what is essentially a business case. This isn’t a sponsorship pitch or opportunity. It’s a business case that has to be written.”
Despite some counties’ difficulties to recruit sponsors, he believes the GAA are performing well commercially on a broad level.
“They’re doing well in the market. Our own industry survey demonstrates a 1% drop in the market this year and I think the GAA has managed to stay strong in that environment. In a lot of cases, they have not only renewed existing sponsorships but to bring new brands on board.
“We do an industry survey every year and as part of that we asked the question of sponsors in the market, ‘what do you see as the areas providing greatest opportunity for growth in sponsorship’. The GAA sits highly up on top of that list.”
Onside Sponsorship research found social media is where brands intend spending more money. The GAA yesterday launched their own Facebook website (www.facebook.com/officialgaa). They are asking supporters to ‘like’ the new Facebook page to unlock access to news, updates and competitions.
To coincide with the initiative, Dublin’s All-Ireland winning defender Cian O’Sullivan gave the official GAA Twitter handle’s first-ever Q&A.
The Kilmacud Crokes man described Cork’s Paddy Kelly as the hardest opponent he’s yet to mark. “He gave me a bit of a roasting when we played in the 2010 All-Ireland semi-final.”
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