Munster set to score €500,000 per year for Thomond Park naming rights
John Trainor, Managing Director of Onside Sponsorship has compared the agreement to the deal between Reebok and Bolton Wanderers which nets the Premiership club in the region of €250,000 a year.
Other comparable deals would be the €334,000 per annum paid by Walkers to Leicester City and the £10m (17.8m) contract linking Jaguar with Coventry City over 12 years.
But he stressed that it was impossible to predict how much a deal like this is worth due to the numerous variables.
“It is hard to say exactly what the cost would be but one of the indicators would be the money spent on sponsorship rights in general: ie what is paid for jersey rights. Equally if it is an existing sponsor; the existing agreement needs to be taken into account.
“But this would be a level one of sponsorship which puts it at the high end of the market in terms of rugby, soccer and GAA here in Ireland.
“Level One is the big deals like county teams and county grounds.”
Ireland is relatively new to the naming rights game with Flancare Park, Century Homes Park, Kingspan Breffni Park and 02 Park amongst the highest-profile deals in this country.
However such sponsorship is a big money generator for teams in the United States and latterly in Europe. Last year, Citigroup bank signed a $400m (€297m) 20-year deal with the New York Mets. Of the 121 top teams in North America’s top four sports — basketball, hockey, NFL and baseball — 83 had their home stadiums or arenas named after corporate sponsors.
Closer to home Arsenal’s 15-year agreement with Emirates was worth €134m which included their shirt sponsorship with a reported €74m for the stadium rights.
The European record is Bayern Munich’s deal with insurance giant Allianz for naming rights on their Arena. That 15-year deal is worth £60m (€89m).
Trainor admits there is a risk to the incoming sponsor who could alienate many supporters.
“The requirement on the part of a new sponsor is that they are seen to be enhancing the whole experience by being part of it rather than just sticking their name on the stadium and leaving it at that.
“A good example came in America where a financial institution who had taken the title sponsorship organised mini golf carts from the car parks to the venue which was a huge help to the fans. They then had their staff show people to their seats making the whole experience a better one for the fans and winning them huge kudos
“I think any incoming stadium sponsor in the Irish market should consider something like this as there is certainly a growing level of cynicism creeping into the Irish market with deals like this. That is the primary risk.”
But he stresses the success rate of such deals is high.
“These have proven hugely successful in delivering brand awareness especially in the States. Most of the deals are with companies that want their brand names front and centre and quick mind recall. Look at the FAI Park plan of ten years ago. Ask ten people today and seven or eight could tell you that it was Eircom. That shows how successful this can be.”
Bookmakers William Hill is offering odds of 4/1 that Toyota will be the name sponsors of redeveloped Thomond Park when it stages its first competitive match. However, Hills also believe they might well decide not to have a sponsor and offer odds of 2/5 that the ground will continue to be called Thomond Park or The New Thomond Park. They also offer 10/1 that it will be the Guinness Stadium, 12/1 The Beamish Stadium, 20/1 Bank Of Scotland, 25/1 The Ballygowan Stadium, 33/1 The Ryanair Stadium, 40/1 The Amazon Stadium, 100/1 The Dolores McNamara Stadium, The Emirates Stadium and 200/1 that the redeveloped ground will be call The Willie O’Dea Stadium.
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