THE NEW GAA season is almost upon us, but the Dublin county board has yet to agree a deal with a new sponsor. Retailer Arnotts gave up the sponsorship at the end of last season after an 18-year association.

In an interview with me earlier this week, Arnotts boss David Riddiford explained why. “If you look at most major clubs . . . they are most sponsored by very big multinational businesses. We were paying €600,000 – €800,000 a year depending on how well they did, so always €600,000,” he added cheekily – “€600,000 a year out of our marketing budget, for a business of our size, is huge.

“Anybody who knows anything about sponsorship will tell you that you have to spend the same again on leveraging the sponsorship, and we never really did that.

“As with a lot of these deals, they run their course. Now we need to look at what we can do with that in our marketing budget, particularly in terms of the 25- to 45-year-old female shoppers.”

Arnotts will continue to stock the Dubs’ shirts and gear. “I don’t think the shirt sales will reduce at all,” he said.

Newspaper reports last weekend suggested that Swedish discounter Ikea was the frontrunner for the sponsorship. But Vodafone and Meteor are believed to be strongly interested and the smart money is on one of them securing a deal, which is thought to carry a price tag of €800,000.

Mind you, Eircom chief executive Paul Donovan’s letter to staff yesterday might put Meteor out of the running.

“All marketing and sponsorship spends will be reviewed for value for money,” Donovan told staff. Vodafone and Meteor declined to comment.