GUINNESS IRELAND has announced that it is to extend its sponsorship of the All Ireland hurling championships up until 1999. The current sponsorship still has a year to run and when the new two year deal is finished the company will have an option to renew.

Agreement on the details was reached between the parties last week. The news is not particularly surprising although the speed with which the association has been extended is noticeable.

Given the success of the sponsorship and its coincidence with two great championships culminating in hugely popular triumphs for Clare and Wexford, there has been understandable enthusiasm shown by both Guinness and the GAA for the partnership to continue.

The announcement was made by Guinness Ireland's managing director Colin Storm at a lunch in Croke Park yesterday. He also committed the company to maintaining their highly effective advertising campaigns which have helped market the hurling championships around the country.

He also announced that agreement had been reached with three universities, UCD, UCC and UL for the provision of three hurling scholarships, each worth £3,000 per annum over three years. The identities of the recipients will he released at a future date.

No details of the financial terms of the agreement were released.

The old sponsorship is believed to be worth around £1 million over three years. It is reasonable to assume that the price has gone up for a couple of reasons.

The success of the sponsorship has made it more desirable commodity and hurling's image higher than it's been for years.

Given Guinness's role in the promotion of the game, the GAA are believed not to have played hardball over the terms of renewal but circumstances have changed in other ways over the two years since the first agreement was signed.

Two years ago, neither the agreement with RTE on live broadcasts nor the Hurling Development Committee's experimental reforms were in place. Both have materially affected the hurling environment.

For obvious reasons, the growth in live television is very attractive to a sponsor. It publicises the sponsors and raises interest in the game which has a further knock on benefit for the sponsors.

Hurling's adoption of a calendar year has so far been very successful. The length of the winter break appears to have whet the appetite of the hurling public and, assisted by the fine weather prevailing throughout March, attendances at the first four series of the National League have shot up with Limerick's to take the most spectacular instance - two home matches to date attracting an aggregate of over 30,000.

The hcightening of public interest will also intensify the focus on this year's championship.

Most important of the hurling reforms, however, is the addition of two matches - All Ireland quarter finals - to the summer schedule. With both provincial finalists in Munster and Leinster progressing to the All Ireland stages, the reform clears the way for two separate semi finals rather than the double bill which has been the norm in recent years. Again, this gives additional exposure to the sponsor.

"When we set out in 1995 in the sponsorship," said Colin Storm, we said at the time that it would be our intention to work closely with the GAA with a view to helping the GAA revitalise and market this wonderful sport. I would like to think that we have been successful. The job is not, however, done and to that end we will continue to work closely with the association looking at how best to promote and market the sport. We will once again be committing major resources to advertising in 1997.

Joe McDonagh, who was attending his first official function as president of the GAA, paid tribute to the sponsor's role. "The Guinness sponsorship of the past two years has been a key factor in giving new impetus to the game of hurling.

"The promotional impact has been dramatic and effective as indeed has the financial support to counties for the development of the game. Guinness have shown creativity and flair which captured the ethos of the game and the imagination of the public. I would like to highlight in particular their poster campaign and obviously their promotional back up through their marketing strategy on their advertising on RTE.

"We very specially welcome the introduction of the three hurling scholarships in University College Dublin, University College Cork and Limerick University."

He also paid tribute to his predecessor Jack Boothman. "Time will tell that his place in the annals of this great association will focus in on his contribution to hurling: his setting up of the Hurling Development Committee and charting a new approach for our game, and also introducing in partnership with Guinness sponsorship of the All Ireland championship."