The GAA - A Commercial Outfit? Martin Breheny.

[Bud Wiser]

Just reading Martin Breheny in todays Indo and begob Martin hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that during the rugby match there was a big Guinness sign painted onto the pitch.  He said that if this was during a GAA match the lines to Joe Duffy would be hopping.

So I was just thinking that once we had The Guinnes All Ireland Championship, The Bank of Ireland Championship and the Allianz Leagues etc but everytime the GAA try to do soemthing we seem to get it in the neck just like Martin B has suggested.  The GPA are as responsible as the P.C. Brigade because they have caused conflict of interest between the reliable sponsors the GAA had.  It is unlikely that the Bank of Ireland (recession or no recession) would be chomping at the bit to sponsor a championship that will have another group sponsoring the players in the championship with Halifax Bank or that Allianz will be encouraged with a similar situation in terms of the GPA's Insure.ie deals being offered to all and sundry while Allianz would be expected to sponsor the league?  Lucozade Sport/ Energiser etc, etc, etc.  Conflicts of interest on a large scale and one of the reasons why the GPA should pack it in, not that any of the hacks in the Indo would agree with that since they even print the GPA magazine and are up to their necks in supporting them.

So, what would happen if the GAA had a commercial arm  to provide Home and Car Insurance with four regional offices in each province. Ould Joe Moore did it when he gathered up a few "Members" and formed the PMPA. Semi State companies have their own insurance and Quinn started off with a few hundred members.  I have just received house and car insurance renewals and leaving aside the car market my  house renewal ialone is 560 euro but let us call that 500. There are 3000 houses in the area, Firhouse, where I live and unless 60% of them went up in flames they can't loose much out of one and a half million a year that they are getting for the last thirty years or more.

Any of the "Insurance Companies" are only glorified Brokers.  So why not have our own 'members' insurance with the GAA acting as broker between the member and the main underwriter, Lloyds?  If you had to be a member to get the reduction every club in the country would have all their memberships paid up and on top of that employment would be created for members in each province.  We could sponsor ourselves then out of at least 50 million a year on house insurance alone!

Now, aint that a pure mad idea?

[Rossfan]

Just reading Martin Breheny in todays Indo and begob Martin hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that during the rugby match there was a big Guinness sign painted onto the pitch.  He said that if this was during a GAA match the lines to Joe Duffy would be hopping.

Don't ye know that you can't criticise rugby in this Builders/Bankers/Wankers Republic.
Only uncouth peasants like me would do such a thing.

[ross matt]

How far do you take the PC issue re companies that sponsor sports though? Supermacs have sponsored alot of GAA teams in Galway but it's hardly an endorsement of healthy nutrition for athletes.

Breheny's article is just a re-hash (as usual with him) of points made in the past.

[Bud Wiser]

What I am more interested in is the sponsorship thing in general.  For example the Dub's ae about to announce their new sponsor and they will get a quarter of a million a year for five years.  Well done to them and fair play on them announcing that this sponsorship will be used throughout the county clubs to promote and help the advance of hurling and football.

However, the poorer/weaker counties like Laois and Roscommon will get nowhere near that.  Sponsorship deals are being enforced by stealth by the GPA where they are slowly turning a screw where teams decide who manages them, they decide what their entitlements are, how they train and - ultimately, who they will have sponsor their team in terms of tracksuits, training gear and eventiually a few bob. The top teams will get richer and more attractive (professional) and the weak teams won't have an arse in their trousers or be able to attract a major sponsor.

So what I am saying is, the rule should be that each county board should have full control of all sponsorship and it should be used like Dublin are going to use what they get in January, or each county team of all grades should be sponsored with an equal amount  directly from a GAA central fund and in order to do that they would have to have a commercial arm to bring in the money to pay out - not that they haven't already got one with renting Croke Park.  Sponsors are hard to get and they are not going to be interested if a direct conflict of interest is created by two bodies looking for a sponsor from the same industry.

[southsidejohnny]

I still see Ross Fan is putting up his pathetic titles theme. Ted Webb shield ( for beaten semi finalists). Ye are not Connacht u21 hurling champions, when did ye beat Galway u21s. Never heard of the other two.

[Bud Wiser]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I still see Ross Fan is putting up his pathetic titles theme. Ted Webb shield ( for beaten semi finalists). Ye are not Connacht u21 hurling champions, when did ye beat Galway u21s. Never heard of the other two.

I know my ould post is fairly confusing but.....??

[haranguerer]

Just reading Martin Breheny in todays Indo and begob Martin hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that during the rugby match there was a big Guinness sign painted onto the pitch.  He said that if this was during a GAA match the lines to Joe Duffy would be hopping.

So I was just thinking that once we had The Guinnes All Ireland Championship, The Bank of Ireland Championship and the Allianz Leagues etc but everytime the GAA try to do soemthing we seem to get it in the neck just like Martin B has suggested.  The GPA are as responsible as the P.C. Brigade because they have caused conflict of interest between the reliable sponsors the GAA had.  It is unlikely that the Bank of Ireland (recession or no recession) would be chomping at the bit to sponsor a championship that will have another group sponsoring the players in the championship with Halifax Bank or that Allianz will be encouraged with a similar situation in terms of the GPA's Insure.ie deals being offered to all and sundry while Allianz would be expected to sponsor the league?  Lucozade Sport/ Energiser etc, etc, etc.  Conflicts of interest on a large scale and one of the reasons why the GPA should pack it in, not that any of the hacks in the Indo would agree with that since they even print the GPA magazine and are up to their necks in supporting them.

So, what would happen if the GAA had a commercial arm  to provide Home and Car Insurance with four regional offices in each province. Ould Joe Moore did it when he gathered up a few "Members" and formed the PMPA. Semi State companies have their own insurance and Quinn started off with a few hundred members.  I have just received house and car insurance renewals and leaving aside the car market my  house renewal ialone is 560 euro but let us call that 500. There are 3000 houses in the area, Firhouse, where I live and unless 60% of them went up in flames they can't loose much out of one and a half million a year that they are getting for the last thirty years or more.

Any of the "Insurance Companies" are only glorified Brokers.  So why not have our own 'members' insurance with the GAA acting as broker between the member and the main underwriter, Lloyds?  If you had to be a member to get the reduction every club in the country would have all their memberships paid up and on top of that employment would be created for members in each province.  We could sponsor ourselves then out of at least 50 million a year on house insurance alone!

Now, aint that a pure mad idea?

Yes bud, it is pretty mad, but at least you're thinking 

You're talking about the GAA branching out into financial services. Ok, sport is commercial, money rules everything, but for an actual sporting organisation to be the broker? What generally happens is that companies may turn to organisations to form comercial links, but I couldnt see the GAA, or FAI or any other sporting organisation actually becoming brokers - this seems like it would be a conflict of interest, no matter where the profits were to be invested, and without considering the practical problems such as how difficult a market it would be to break into.

Reminds me of the Gaelic Telecom thing - anyone know if its still on the go? I dont think it did great, which showed that while people love the GAA, they love their money more, and will go whereevers cheaper.

Also, not sure about the jobs - wouldn't the loss of business of the existing insurance brokers and inevitable redundancies offset any new jobs created?

[Bud Wiser]

That's fair enough so, but for example today/yesterday Wickla announced they had a new sponsor to replace Ballymore Homes.  So, Mick Baily's friend Sean Mulryan who owns half of a fair square of property in the most valuable financial sector of England has opted out to be replaced by a Hotelier, 'Brennan' at a time when restaurants and hotels/pubs are closing down.   I still say (and fair play to Mr Brennan) that there are less pickings out there now in terms of corporate sponsorship, a fact that is compounded by Sean Og O'Halpin saying in todays paper that he advises Clare hurlers not to strike or if they do to stay on it too long.

Leaving aside the old way of Home Insurance and the Rg- Ma- Roll that people had to go through to get it, it is now a simple thing as an excel spread sheet in terms of adminstration.  I still say, there is currently nothing in a home insurance policy that says, if poor ould Mick who is 80yrs has his house broken into and is battered to within an inch of his life, that there is a GAA thing, an inherint part of the GAA that says we should be taking in the millions and not some broker. 

But then again I am slightly mad !   Just throwing the thing out there.  Funnilly enough, Gaelic Telecom as nyoum mentioned were the first to cop on to this but the reason they could not do home insurance was because they would not have the Insurance Bond to be admitted.  The GAA are unique in the amount of members they have to do it if they wanted.  They, or members of every club could not lose.

[Lone Shark]

Gaelic Telecom didn't work because it was all but impossible to get the hoors to answer a phone call, or deal with a customer service issue. That was why Mam and Dad gave up on them back at home - they had a technical issue and Gaelic Telecom had no interest in doing their job. Switched back to Eircom after nearly six months of foostering, and it was resolved within a week.

Obviously that's anecdotal, but I have heard other stories along those lines. It was nothing to do with scrimping and saving the few pence.