THEY MIGHT not have won the Sam Maguire since 1995 but the Dublin GAA team are set to score one of the biggest sports sponsorship deals in the country with mobile giant Vodafone.
It is understood that Vodafone will become the Dubs’ title sponsor for the next six years in a deal worth an initial €800,000 a year, rising to about €1 million annually over the life of the agreement.
Bonuses will also be paid based on success.
This deal is thought to be about four times more than mobile rival O2 pays to back the Cork GAA teams, while sponsorship of the Tyrone football team is available for about €120,000.
Vodafone moved into pole position after mobile rival Meteor, which is owned by Eircom, withdrew its interest on Thursday.
The pair had initially gone head-to-head for the sponsorship rights, which will cover Dublin’s senior football and hurling teams.
The sponsorship deal will extend Vodafone’s association with the GAA. The company already sponsors the All-Ireland Football Championship, along with Ulster Bank and Toyota. That deal has one year left to run.
Vodafone’s branding will feature prominently at Parnell Park, Dublin’s home venue for national league games, and other GAA grounds around the capital.
It will also connect the mobile brand with Dublin’s burgeoning underage structures. About 90,000 GAA players are registered in Dublin.
Dublin’s footballers are the best supported GAA team in the country, despite the county’s lack of success in recent decades.
Dublin has won just two All-Ireland senior titles – 1983 and 1995 – in the past 30 years. Despite this, the team regularly packs out the 82,500-capacity Croke Park for championship games and attracts large television audiences for both RTÉ and TV3.
The multimillion-euro sponsorship is set to be announced in the run-up to Christmas.
Vodafone will replace retailer Arnotts as the Dubs’ sponsor, after the department store decided to end its 18-year association with the county earlier this year.
Arnotts chief executive David Riddiford told The Irish Times last week that the company paid €600,000 for its sponsorship of the team. “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,” Mr Riddiford said.
Vodafone has successfully used sport across the world to promote its brand. It previously sponsored Manchester United and the Ferrari Formula One team.
But given that Vodafone’s corporate colour is red it will need to come up with an innovate way of integrating its logo with the Dubs’ traditional blue kit.
Vodafone declined to comment last night.