Before Ireland’s incident-packed debut appearance at the finals in Australia, sponsors universally opted not to invest in the team, following qualification last year.

This was due to the largely untested nature of jumping on board with a new asset, even one with seemingly enormous potential.

Seamus Power in golf is an example of the cautious nature of sponsorship with no major Irish corporates yet on board, despite riding high on the PGA Tour, and a potential Ryder Cup rookie selection in September.

While Power has a number of lucrative US sponsors, the caution from investors here with the WNT is due to a market which has still no real identity. Even now, there is still some confusion about what the audience is and what its demographic might be.

This was certainly the case before the World Cup where the flurry of hoped-for activity never occurred despite optimistic predictions from some commentators of up to €5m in revenue being achieved.

Those forecasts never happened, and will not happen now, with no rights buying commercial director willing to stake their reputation or budget on what has gone from an unknown option to a high risk entity, of questionable value.

This lack of any commercial buy-in was most interesting in the eight month period between qualification for the World Cup and the Finals, where some came and looked, but nobody bought.

The ‘Up the ‘RA’ controversy certainly will not have helped, where it was generally accepted by the public that ‘we all make mistakes’, but where investors will have added: “But just not with my brand associated.” Back then, as with now, the team has two key partners - Sky Ireland, the headline sponsor and lower-tier associate Cadbury, with both deals achieved in 2021 for modest investment fees.

The bigger question before the World Cup was just how many more brands would come and join them.

The reality was zero exclusive WNT deals — outside of the more general association contracts with Castore and Circle K, which cover all Irish international teams — with that figure unlikely to trend upwards in the short-term.

So why, even before a brand-damaging World Cup, were corporates so hesitant about this team, with its incredible back story and seemingly endless potential?

A brand executive and industry expert who has experience of working on major football projects explained to The Pitch that there were, and still are, too many unknowns to make accurate commercial investment decisions.

“It’s a broadly new commercial proposition,” explained the influential marketeer, who asked not to be named.

“Despite the goodwill as a sponsorship property, it’s untested in Ireland and that goodwill hasn’t translated into actual contracts just yet.

“There are still question marks around the profile of the viewers and the fans.

“Is it broadly female fans and that’s the way it will stay, or will male football fans join in supporting the team long-term?

“Certainly in the stands, there are a lot more women to be seen and heard and this is important, because as a brand owner you need to know your audience in order to tailor your message.

“And right now that audience is still growing and undefined.” 

The other big issue for potential investors is that “the marquee opportunity of the jersey is already taken by Sky”.

“The remaining low tier sponsor will struggle to get exposure or association,” she added.

Sky and Cadbury might express huge satisfaction with the paid-for brand exposure that each achieved on their World Cup journey together.

It was hard to avoid both sponsors’ pre-World Cup activations, with Sky’s ‘Outbelieve’ campaign by Core Media and Cadbury’s ‘Be A Supporter & A Half’ by The Public House, achieving significant traction.

Outside of those targeted audiences, the wider public seemed to be on board with television viewership recording strongly despite the off-peak coverage.

A record 550,600 watched Ireland’s game with Canada, even more than the 511,000 viewers who viewed the opening game against Australia, while understandably Nigeria figures dropped by half for the side’s largely irrelevant final game.

Up to 700,000 more streamed the matches on the RTÉ Player, so certainly the broadcast audience has elevated the team profile, but this still doesn’t educate sponsors on the demographic breakdown.

The opportunity to learn more will present itself in a much clearer light in September when Ireland play its first Women’s international at the Aviva Stadium, in a UEFA Nations League tie against Northern Ireland.

This will present the first largescale evaluation for investors on exactly who this team’s active audience is, and more importantly, what value it holds to a highly-cautious sponsorship sector.

The value of an Irish Open to a global audience 

 FOR the first time in three years Mount Juliet will not host the Irish Open, the biggest annual international sporting event to take place in Ireland.

Up to 85,000 golf fans made their way to the County Kilkenny super resort last summer for the second consecutive open tournament at the venue, and perhaps the best ever from an organisational and attendance perspective.

For Mark Dunne, Mount Juliet’s General Manager, not having the competition in his home anymore is “like a big break-up”, a loss so sudden after a long and all-consuming relationship where every hour was spent together.

“We’ve just got over it really,” he laughs.

“It was part of our lives every week for two-and-a-half years and it’s gone.

“There’s no other way of comparing it – it’s a break up – we had an extraordinary time together and then they’re not there anymore.” 

Mark Dunne believes having “the honour of hosting an Irish Open at Mount Juliet” has added extraordinary international visibility to the golf course, which for many, is the best parkland course in the country.

The tournament was shown live in 44 countries, most notably in the US on the Golf Channel, where visibility reached huge numbers adding to the estimated 300 million viewers around the world.

This returned a media value of €5m and a PR return of €25m in the process to the venue and the DP World Tour.

The digital figures alone were quite extraordinary with 34m+ impressions across all platforms – 11.1m on Facebook, 7.1m on Instagram, 12.1m on Twitter and 2.1m on YouTube.

Mark Dunne believes that “no stone was left unturned in achieving the biggest bang” from a PR and media perspective, the results he says can be seen through the influx of domestic and international visitors to Mount Juliet, and Co Kilkenny generally.

With the K Club going through something of a media blackout ahead of September’s Irish Open, what will be most interesting is if this year’s event in County Kildare can grab the same attention.

Certainly the 63,000 tickets sold for Mount Juliet for the tournament itself, with up to 85,000 unofficially in attendance all week, are figures that the K Club will be aiming for.

Adeleke following some big shoes into Nike stable 

JUST five words announced track star Rhasidat Adeleke’s arrival into the big time last month: ‘Blessed. New chapter with Nike.’ The deal will be in the low six figures initially, with performance incentives set to rise accordingly for the sprint star, who has just turned professional.

Nike’s acquisition of new sports talent is the organisation’s key marketing and sales strategy, for a brand linked with such athletic perfection such as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.

Adeleke joins fellow rookie and French basketball prodigy Victor Wembanyama, who signed with the brand in a $100m dollar shoe deal earlier this year.

The 7’5” San Antonio Spurs draft pick will wear size 20.5 Nike Air GT Run shoes in the NBA next season.

Irish coach achieves tennis immortality 

 TENNIS coach Dave Miley has been announced as a recipient of the prestigious International Tennis Federation Award for Services to the Game.

To understand how prestigious Miley’s achievement is, the ITF awards just one coach each year who has had a significant impact on the sport - with Judy Murray, Nick Bollitieri and Toni Nadal previous recipients.

President of Tennis Ireland John Ryan pointed to Miley’s work in Kazakhstan with last year’s Wimbledon Singles Champion Lena Rybakina, as “outstanding”.

“During his time with the ITF he was responsible for many innovations which have stood the test of time and have benefitted our sport,” said Ryan.