Striking changes on the way

Seán Moranlooks at the three key areas in which the GAA must soon make far-reaching decisions

The GAA is facing into a crucial six weeks in which far-reaching decisions must be made in three separate areas, apart from today's expected vote in favour of a players' strike by Gaelic Players Association members. The association is expected to name a successor to director general Liam Mulvihill within the next two weeks and before Christmas conclude its most lucrative agreements in the field of national sponsorships and broadcast rights.

Mulvihill is stepping down after 28 years during which the GAA and its administrative requirements have changed beyond recognition and to the extent that an operations manager is also to be appointed, effectively replacing the outgoing director general with two posts.

The three shortlisted candidates were interviewed last Tuesday. GAA player welfare manager Páraic Duffy is the favourite and has strong administrative credentials, having served at virtually every level of the association, including some high-profile trouble-shooting roles before moving to Croke Park on a full-time basis nearly 12 months ago to take over the newly-created position he currently holds.

Croke Park stadium director Peter McKenna has been a visible success in more than four years in the post, raising revenues from the stadium to the point where it has started to pay annual dividends to the GAA.

Former Dublin footballer Pat Gilroy is a surprise candidate in that he comes from outside the Croke Park apparatus but he is a successful businessman and managing director of Dalkia Ireland, the Irish outlet of the major multi-national, which employs over 40,000 worldwide.

Whoever is appointed will face significant challenges. Today's likely player strike isn't likely to take effect in that the issue of player grants will probably be settled in the next few weeks but it is a reminder relations with inter-county players are going to be a major issue in the years ahead.

Commercially the association is breaking new ground with the decision to create a three-sponsor partnership in relation to each of the big championships instead of the single-sponsor model favoured up until now.

"I'm not sure that we've got the message across in relation to this," according to GAA commercial manager Dermot Power. "It's not about generating more money but about clearing the brand environment and using that to promote the games. Up until now we've had one partner for each championship and they've based promotional campaigns on their sponsorship. Now we're looking at three partners and three campaigns."

Nonetheless there will be a considerable increase in the total value of the sponsorships, which are expected to more than double to a figure in the region of €30 million over three years.

Power accepts this model isn't as appealing to the companies which previously held sole rights to the sponsorships and Bank of Ireland, sponsors of the football championship since 1994, have recently signalled their withdrawal. "For a title sponsor who's had that, it's a radical change but from our point of view there's an awful lot of companies who were looking for an involvement and this model gives the opportunity for six of them to become partners in the process."

To make this shared partnership more attractive to potential sponsors the GAA plans to greatly reduce the amount of branding that surrounds championship matches.

Croke Park has terminated pitch-side advertising agreements to allow the new sponsors exclusive access to that signage during championship fixtures. In provincial venues the same will apply when championship matches are played there.

Established advertisers won't necessarily be asked to leave unless they are in competition with one of the new sponsors. In the event of a county team being sponsored by a rival company, they won't be required to remove the usual branding from their home fixtures and jersey logos won't be affected in any other ground but the title sponsors' branding will be displayed around the ground.

There will also be greater prominence for the title sponsors in broadcasts of the championship matches with the GAA stipulating as part of the broadcast rights that their sponsorship partners be allowed exclusive access to any branding surrounding the programme.

"This isn't new internationally," according to Power, "but in Irish sport it is. People will have seen it in relation to the Ryder Cup when it was here last year and will be familiar with it from the Champions League, Olympics and World Cup but it hasn't been seen in the domestic market."

Broadcast rights have leaped in value over the past 10 years and now for the first time the GAA is benefiting from genuine competition for the product. For years Croke Park had been unhappy at the monopoly situation given RTÉ was the sole bidder.

It's just 15 years since the GAA decided to split domestic rights from international rights, which RTÉ used also to hold, and since Setanta were granted the overseas package in 1997 the value of media to the association's annual income has risen from just over €1 million to €6.9 million.

The value of the international rights has receded a little in recent years with the decline in emigration and also the addition of RTÉ to the Sky digital platform, which has affected the overseas market because anyone with an Irish satellite card can access RTÉ coverage of championship matches. But the intensified competition in the domestic market will be of great benefit to the GAA, who are estimated to be likely to earn last year's total media income from domestic championship rights alone each year over the three years of any new agreement.

Whereas RTÉ will be favourites to retain the primary rights bundle, there is increased competition this time from TV3.

There are also expected to be rights allocated to subscription television given the positive experience of last season's live floodlit league matches.