Would you sponsor the Cork Hurling Team?

[Bud Wiser]

Seems like the days of JP McManus flinging €5Million at Limerick hurlers is gone, probably for most of our lifetimes.  So, all counties need as much money as they can get their paws on to provide the best facilities they can for the players.  As bad as things are with the economy does anyone think that the carry on down in Cork is having a detrimental affect on other counties who are trying to scrounge a bit of sponsorship?  If you were a large company would you sponsor the Cork hurlers if they came back - or, if I had my way - were allowed back tomorrow?

Question is: Has this strike cost other counties and will sponsors say that hurling is too conflicting a sport to add their name to?

[The GAA]

Is that a trick question?

[dublinese]

Surely O2 are getting increased exposure as a result of the conflict

[Bud Wiser]

I don't know any PR agency that would suggest that advertising with a company that are in conflict with the public is a good idea.  Some will say that any advertising is good advertising, I suppose if you think the way of the owner of the restauraunt that the health inspector exposed when he found a live rat on the restauraunt floor, well any advertising is good advertising if you look at it that way.

Is it a trick question?   No, it is not a trick question, can you not understand it? The question is, that a lot of companies sponsor a lotof inter-county teams and the question is very simple, unless you are from Cork, it being, will the strike and uncertainty that has been created in Cork lead to a downturn in required revenue that clubs depend on from companies like o2?

The answer to the question I ask is either Yes or No.

If the answer is Yes, then the Cork 'has been' panel or '08 panel' or 'Cork Strikers' or whatever you want to call them should disband and go away and the entire Cork County Board should resign their positions and all the clubs should elect a completely new setup.  

If the answer is No, it will not effect other counties then frankly I could not give a flying f about Cork.

For what it is worth, I would love to see the GAA, alongside with the "Twinning" program introduce a cap on sponsorship levels that would give weaker hurling counties an equal chance to provide equal training facilities as those who show in their annual accounts that it cost €180,000 to run a senior hurling team for the year.  I would like to see when JP McManus flings 5 Million at the Limerick County Board that some of it would flutter into Offaly or Kerry to go towards hurling improvement in thise counties.

Maybe it is time that sponsorship of inter-county teams was done through a central allocation fund, that way weaker counties that never saw 180,000 a year in their lifetime might get a fair chance of building up teams and the counties that were so comfoirtable with the millions in sponsorship they have got over the last ten years will appreciate it more.

[The GAA]

The dispute has massively increased the O2 exposure over the last number of months. alongside the keenly covered new team (how well are preseason games normally covered on tv, photgraphed and splashed on papers?) they are also getting the O2 attired 08 team extensively covered trainging and with press issues.

noone is negativley associating the brand with the dispute in any way. its a win win in the PR department.

Stupid question.

As for capping sponsorship? is that a genuine suggestion?

[maxpower]

Would i sponsor Cork: No, but if i were O2 i would continue the sponsorship as they have the branding on the 08 team and 09 team as so aren't associated with either faction of the dispute and are benefitting from the increased profile

Will it affect other counties sponsorship: Yes, makes the hurling championship a less attractive option all round in the long term

[Bud Wiser]

Stupid question.

There you go again.  Know it all.  Everyone is not as smart as me syndrome.

I know people and companies who have had their pictures and companies splashed all over the papers in the last month as well.  Want me to name them for you?  Sean Fitzpatrick, Anglo Irish Bank, Bus Drivers, etc and I could go on and on but, since ye are all so cute down in Cork I doubt if you would want anything to do with them (unless join the bus drivers on strike) so please don't tell me that because you get your picture in the paper it translates into the fact that you are going to get another 180,000 euro this year in sponsorship.

In relation to your last question, I suppose that because Cork have such high profile sponsorship and are in the comfort zone, the question would make more sense to the likes of Leitrim, Carlow, Sligo, etc so I won't tax you with trying to understand that the point I am making is that if it is going to come down to who has the most sponsorship - or- who has the required 180,000 per team to win an All-Ireland and who hasn't then a new way of promoting hurling is in need of being looked at.  My opinion.

[The GAA]

Ok - explain the logic to me that attaches a bad image to O2 in all of this increased exposure?

what thought process leads a customer to say "i'm cancelling my contract to teach that frank murphy / sean og a lesson"?

the massive difference with the negative publicity example syou cite is that there is nothing negative attached to 02 here - only increased brand exposure. surely you can see the distinction? i guarantee you any potential sponsor could.

On what planet would any sporting organization limit the amount of sponsorship their teams may generate? ludicrus.
If this is some sort of roundabout way of trying to introduce the rebalancing that the NBA use the draft and salary capping for then its at best misguided.

[Bud Wiser]

Would i sponsor Cork: No, but if i were O2 i would continue the sponsorship as they have the branding on the 08 team and 09 team as so aren't associated with either faction of the dispute and are benefitting from the increased profile.


Will it affect other counties sponsorship: Yes, makes the hurling championship a less attractive option all round in the long term

Fair comment but:

I was just wondering what happens if the banks are nationalized, or, to an extent some of them are already.  Now, in my business I regularly apply for contracts from the government e-tenders website.  Any Government Agency can not allocate a contract over 10,000 euro without putting it out to public tender.  This translated meansd that a government agency can not spend money without going to tender whether they be a hospital, school, health board or local authority, Board Of Works etc.

Since the Banks are now going to come under that scope they must, axccording to my interpretation of the law, advertise invitations for interested parties within the GAA to submit applications (tenders) for advertising programs throughout the GAA.  They can't just stick their names on Corporate boxes and fill them with corporate fat cats no more and the point I am making is that some way must be found to distribute funds from corporate advertising more equally in terms of hurling counties where the promotion of hurling is required.   I see nothing wrong with the GAA setting up a proper business like central fund raising system from where applications for funds from places such as the National Lottery would carry more weight than from, as I call him, the man with the cap in a country club or county board, particularly county boards that have made the papers for hundreds of thousands going missing from their accounts.

[Bud Wiser]

I'll tell you what, maybe I should retract the above suggestions on the basis that I am crossing into a restricted area, an area that the GPA want to control !

[The GAA]

Maxpower just said the exact same thing as me. you agreed with him and disagreed with me.

speaks volumes about your preconceptions when reading.

[maxpower]

Don't think he disagreed with you, merely the manner of your response.

would think that Bud's suggestion of a central organisation within HQ through which all applications go is worhty of discussion and would assist clubs that don't have the personnel with the nous for these application procedures

[The GAA]

Very unlikely that a centrally controlled system would work at club level given the geography and nature of club sponsorship.

at intercounty level you will lose sponsors in their droves if the sponsor cannot access the team it wishes to

[anglocelt39]

Don't know what Arthur Scargill's old National Union of Miners are up to these days but there might be a chance of a link up there, ideologically if nothing else. Taking things onto a slightly more international scale the Australian Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) have been known to down tools at the slightest opportunity (off shore winds and a two metre swell at Bondi) so with some lateral thinking the possibilities of sponsorship are endless in my view.

[orangeman]

There must be a bit of french blood in the 2008 panel - French air at least blowing over must be having an influence.