Tony Leen: Chances are Pádraig Ó Caoimh would have seen the Valu in Páirc deal

There are irrefutable financial realities: Cork GAA might have the shiniest façade in town, but it can’t afford to hang the curtains much less pay its way out of the suffocating debt

SELLOUT: Páirc Ui Chaoimh was packed for the visit of South Africa to play Munster. There aren't enough of these occasions, however, to grease the wheels. 

PADDY O’Keeffe – Pádraig Ó Caoimh in the current context – manoeuvred his way out of enough tight corners as first, a civil war volunteer, and later, a GAA official, to be comfortable wearing the badge of an arch pragmatist. For that he was.

When it came to planning a 1947 All-Ireland football final at New York’s Polo Grounds, there were enough logistical and bureaucratic hoops to jump through to dissuade the most ambitious pioneer, but Ó Caoimh methodically met and dealt with every hurdle. Travel and communication impediments remained, but the general secretary of the association – whom Cork GAA proudly named their HQ after – saw beyond restriction to the real prize, an opportunity to move the Gaelic football showpiece to a global stage. This was no flight of fancy. If his fundamentals were ever in the dock, witness a decade later, his and the Association’s vision for every GAA club in the country to have its own patch under the terms of the ‘Grounds Plan’.

The idea of a man who grew up on Quaker Road, in Nemo Rangers territory, spinning in a grave at the removal of his name to fund the debt-laden stadium is a seductive narrative to be sure, but it’s unlikely to stand up to robust scrutiny.

He would accept the stark – many would say desperate – choices Cork GAA face and approve the lowering of the €30m debt with repayments to banks and GAA HQ. And he might turn then to the naysayers and ask: have you got a better plan?

Renaming the stadium SuperValu Páirc is, at the end of the day, the cost of doing business when all the aces are in someone else’s hand.

That’s not to say the distress the proposal has generated this week – be it punters, players or politicians - is not authentic or without merit. The proposed renaming of Páirc Ui Chaoimh as SuperValu Páirc jars on many levels, not least because it is the first full annexation of a stadium name for a commercial partner. Usually, a sponsor is bolted onto the front end of an existing name.

The intervention of Tánaiste Micheal Martin – whose bone fides in this area would be strong – spoke of “deep disappointment and annoyance” at the change of name but the comparison of SuperValu’s funding of the stadium with the state’s – ‘Govt allocated €30m towards the development of the stadium and never sought naming rights’ – has limited relevance, even for a proud Nemo man.

There are irrefutable financial realities that must be put above anything: Cork GAA might have the shiniest façade in town, but it can’t afford to hang the curtains much less pay its way out of the suffocating debt. Concerts, rugby games and other events provide valued rental income, but the Springsteens and the Crusaders aren’t coming around half fast enough to offset Cork's financial obligations. Cork is duty-bound to finance its county teams to the tune of a couple of million euros a year because not to do so removes the best chance they have of filling the damn ground. 

And that costly construct is the most attractive tangible asset Cork GAA has in its portfolio.

The idea of a Páirc Ui Chaoimh stadium sponsor is nothing new, and only a blind person would fail to see the CEO, Kevin O’Donovan, softening up the ground in recent months for this deal – right down to the adroit use of ‘Pairc’ and not ‘Ui Chaoimh’ in a number of releases.

Much like the GAA’s own national media rights tender, Cork needed competition from corporate giants queueing up with their cheque book, and for a time, there was an expectation this would happen. But the landscape didn’t improve on the backside of covid and Musgraves, with their SuperValu brand, are the only ones who’ve shown the colour of their money.

Whatever about the name over the door, SuperValu has a lot to recommend it in a Cork context – a long-time retail and wholesale business and local employer, well-trusted and respected in the city right down to their red and white livery. Most even-handed Cork GAA supporters would be comfortable with the fit but the airbrushing of the man from Quaker Road from the top line has put the rubberstamp back in its box.

In the final furlong, the SuperValu Páirc Ui Chaoimh moniker was on the table for approval but the retail company recognised the inherent threat to its prefix and its eventual elimination over the next few years. That it will be ‘the Páirc’ to the proletariat anyway is not lost on them, but they were the ones in a position to control the terms of negotiation. Cork GAA certainly wasn’t.

With the three subsidiary sponsors – Boston Scientific, Statkraft and PepsiCo – the annual revenue from the naming rights will border €300,000. The proposed agreement is for around five years. Whether it extends to ten will be the true weathervane of the relationship, but it’s a potential €3m that Cork simply could not afford to pass up. Croke Park, who in Ger Mulryan, have a voice at the stadium board table, are like-minded.

It's not as if Padraig Ó Caoimh didn't merit mention around the boardroom at the Páirc. There are proposals for either an Ó Caoimh statue or more likely an exhibition at the stadium. However, the failure to make contact with his living relatives to advise them of the business proposal was poor. 

A statement from Cork GAA Tuesday night would only say: "SuperValu and Cork GAA remain committed to continuing their engagement, as both parties share a common interest in supporting Gaelic games across the county, and discussions are continuing."

As the debate, ironically behind closed doors, kicked off Tuesday night, the most valuable currency in the room was a reversion to ‘SuperValu Páirc Ui Chaoimh’, the view being that everyone wins.

Whether the investors are willing to wear that remains to be seen. Delegates and their club brethren appreciate the stricken state of Cork’s finances but there will inevitably be a few shots across the bow from the floor.

Though it was only announced by way of email last Friday, excluding media from these meetings has been in the works for some time. Clearly there is commercially sensitive detail to be shared (on occasions) with delegates that do not necessarily belong in the public domain, though why these cannot be tagged and bagged in thirty minutes before a meeting is formally opened up is quite the puzzle. One for an arch-pragmatist.