Caveat: Rio ticketing scandal a disaster for OCI sponsors

At the Olympic Council of Ireland's (OCI) 100 Days to Rio media call in Dublin in April, the organisation's president, Pat Hickey, couldn't resist a little nibble at Nike, the main sponsor of golfer Rory McIlroy. The Ulsterman has a $100 million deal with the sports manufacturer.

At the time, McIlroy was still on board as the most prominent member of Team Ireland and one of the country’s best medal hopes. It was two months before he would withdraw from Rio, citing concerns over the Zika virus.

Media call

At the 100 days media call, Hickey spoke about the decision to award the Team Ireland athletes' kit contract for Rio to US brand New Balance.

“Before Rory decided whether he’d declare for Team GB or Ireland, we put our team gear out to contract,” said Hickey. “Just in case he declared for us, we went to Nike in the UK and told them we might have Rory. But they just dismissed us out of hand and now they regret it, I believe.”

When the New Balance deal was subsequently announced, Hickey argued, Nike realised it had missed “a golden opportunity”. By not taking on the Irish team sponsorship, it wouldn’t have the opportunity to leverage it against the brand’s hottest sponsorship property, McIlroy.

By “dismissing” the OCI president, Hickey seemed to be saying, Nike would now simply have to suck it up while the star golfer competed for Ireland wearing the kit of one of its main rivals. Hickey loves to triumph over those who he feels have crossed him. McIlroy’s camp must have been furious.

Hickey said: “Rory’s agent came to us and said: ‘What about Nike?’ And I said: ‘What about them? They had the opportunity and they missed it.’ I’m told the Nike guys nearly collapsed when they heard [New Balance was the sponsor].”

When Hickey was arrested at his hotel room in Rio on Wednesday morning wearing, not New Balance, but virtually nothing at all, one could imagine that the “Nike guys nearly collapsed”, all right . . . laughing, at this chippy Irish sports administrator who is now at the heart of an alleged ticket touting scandal.

#karma

Shortly after news of Hickey’s arrest filtered back to Ireland, McIlroy put out a single, cryptic tweet: “#karma”. It has since been deleted.

Despite the heroics of the O'Donovan brothers in the rowing and Annalise Murphy in the sailing – and the valiant efforts of the rest of squad – the Rio Olympics has been an unmitigated disaster for Team Ireland and the OCI.

Similarly, it all must be desperately disappointing for their corporate sponsors, including the main sponsor Electric Ireland, Kellogg's (surely Corn Flakes are not the breakfast of champions?), New Balance, the yoghurt-maker Müller and the OCI's official car company, Kia.

A reputational pall now hangs over the Olympics movement in Ireland while its president remains under arrest. Hickey is, of course, innocent until proven otherwise, but his standing as a sports administrator now lies in tatters.

To top it all off, the three directors of Pro10, the official tickets dealer appointed by Hickey and the OCI, are currently named on Brazilian arrest warrants. Meanwhile, gloom envelops the Irish boxers following Michael O’Reilly’s expulsion from Rio for doping.

This sort of press is not what the sponsors expected when they signed up, in deals that were all formally announced by Hickey.

Sponsorship is a huge part of the OCI’s income. More than 70 per cent of its 2015 revenue of just shy of €1 million came from marketing and sponsorship agreements, including €230,000 related to the Rio kit deal alone.

The proportion of the OCI’s income from sponsorship deals may even increase this year, as activity around the games ramped up.

Given all that has happened, Rio could hardly have gone much worse for Team Ireland, the OCI and, by extension, their corporate partners.

Then again, maybe they should be thankful they are not in the same position as Aeroflot and Gazprom, the two main sponsors of the Russian Olympic team, which is mired in a murky state-sponsored drugs scandal.

Perhaps Aeroflot can rescue things with a campaign about “flying high”. But overall, it is hard to imagine a worse sponsorship disaster than the one that has beset the Russians.

That is not much consolation for the Irish, though, is it?

Footnotes

Andrew Collins, the millionaire Prepay Power founder, and Derek Richardson, his former 123.ie business partner who now owns London Wasps rugby club, must be thanking their lucky stars they acted when they did in a dispute with a glitzy London property developer.

Mark Holyoake, a British entrepreneur and socialite, is currently embroiled in a salacious court battle in London with the Candy brothers, Nick and Christian, the celebrity property developers who developed One Hyde Park in Knightsbridge.

The Candy brothers – or the Brothers Bling, as they are known in the UK media– lent Holyoake £12 million in 2014 in mezzanine financing for a proposed development at Grosvenor Gardens House.

They subsequently fell out over the deal and Holyoake is suing the brothers for damages, after he says they forced him to repay the cash on disadvantageous terms

In court last month, Holyoake alleged the Candy brothers threatened to pass on his debt to “Russians” who might hurt him, and that Christian Candy asked after the health of his pregnant wife in a “threatening” manner. The Candys deny making any threats.

The case goes on.

Meanwhile, a source recently told us that Richardson and Collins were among a small group of investors who also provided £5 million of mezzanine financing in 2014 to Holyoake for Grosvenor Gardens House. Collins and Richardson put in close to £1 million each.

When the development deal collapsed, they initially did not get their money back from Holyoake. Documents show they launched court action against him in the British Virgin Islands and London, taking out freezing orders on the assets of one of his companies.

I hear the Irish boys had first-mover advantage, and eventually got most of their cash back. A freezing order remains in place in London, however, due to a small amount of interest supposedly still outstanding.

Oh, to move in those circles. . .

Peppa Pig could be carved up if some private equiteers get their way. Or, at least, the owner of Peppa Pig, Entertainment One, could be broken up if a mooted takeover approach succeeds.

Rumour has it KKR has joined the fray, after Entertainment One this week rejected a £1 billion ITV approach. KKR, it is rumoured, could break up the assets to unlock value. Poor Peppa is surely too cute to be made into pork chops.

Dublin wealth manager Appian Asset Management has a small stake in Entertainment One. Not a huge one – certainly less than £1 million – but enough to make it interesting. John Mattimoe, head of equity analysis, this week urged the rejection of the offer at the price offered by ITV.

“The offer fails to recognise Entertainment One’s specific growth prospects – having invested heavily in assets over the past 18 months the company has put the platform in place that makes its plan to double the business by 2020 a credible target.”

How will Entertainment One and Peppa fend off the dastardly KKR? These financiers always have their snouts in the trough.