‘A Garden of Opportunity’

Smullen sets out his stall

‘I was hoping the word ‘fail’ wouldn’t be used tonight,’ said Wicklow GAA Treasurer Alan Smullen at the Wicklow Review meeting in Ballinakill recently.

Smullen was reacting to a suggestion by Avondale GAA Club delegate Victor O’Shaughnessy about the lack of sales on the sponsorship board in the lobby of Ballinakill. O’Shaughnessy said it was a one aspect that the County Board had ‘failed’ on.

Alan Smullen seized the opportunity to put his stamp on the meeting.

‘I’m hoping that tonight is the start of something a little bit new, and a little bit more positive,’ he said. ‘Yeah, we have failed. So, let’s move on. What’s next, like? What are we going to do about it? These things don’t just happen. Somebody has to actually get up and do them. Someone has to say, ‘yeah, you know what, this is the plan, I’m going to pick up the phone, ring all the people in the room and ask what are you doing about it?’

‘Or maybe it’s not that. Maybe it’s something a little bit different than that. I’m going to talk about the structure in a few minutes and maybe if I can answer that within that aspect I can explain where we see somebody or a group of people taking that as part of a number of other issues and moving forward with it. Because I agree it’s a very simple way of showing support. It’s also a great way for people to remember deceased family members. There’s a couple of ways we might get it to work.

‘When we sat down with Bryan (Doyle) and the team and spoke about how we were going to structure a commercial strategy for something as big and intricate as Wicklw GAA, and when you get into the detail it’s not that simple.

‘One key aim for me is that we don’t just go out willy nilly and get sponsorship for this and sponsorship for that and decide that’s fine, what’s next and then move on to the next thing. A real key aim for me is that we put a sustainable structure in place, so whether it’s Alan Smullen or Bryan Doyle or whoever that it’s able to continue and move through.

‘I think if we look backwards – and I hope not to do too much of that tonight – that’s maybe where we’ve fallen aside a little bit. We’ve done some great things and then maybe forgot about them or left them to one side, or the person in charge of them moved on to something else. It has to be a sustainable model.

‘The second thing is: if anyone in the room says, ‘well, why can’t we do it like Dublin, or why can’t we do it like Kerry, or Mayo, they are in a different world, a different universe than we are operating in. What they do is done by a team of people. We’ve one PRO for example, some of those counties have 10. We have to start a little bit small, but with big aims. There are some really smart ways of working here and that’s where we’re aiming to get to.

‘We put a structure in place to sell; that’s what sponsorship basically is. The first thing we have to decide is what it is that we are selling. We put a list together. You’ve obviously got the name on the jerseys, the name on Aughrim, the name here (Ballinakill), you might have the second name on the back of the jersey, you have the competitions, you have the juvenile competitions. Have you a sponsor for the academy teams? Have you a sponsor for the academy. Have you a sponsor for the website? And then what you have to do is put a value on them. Where do you start there, because the value could be pick a number and multiply it by two and see what happens?

‘We got some really good replies from the guys in Croke Park, they were only too willing to help us. The guys in Leinster assisted greatly in this project, too. So, we’ve now got a list of what we have to sell and we have a value on it. We‘ve put that value on it based on looking at the other counties and what they’ve valued, and then saying what we have currently in terms of sponsorship. And, by the way, we have some amazing sponsors. It’s only when you get in and you talk to these people that you wonder are they really getting a lot out of it, they’re probably not getting much business out of it, but the fact that they want to sponsor something in Wicklow GAA is fantastic.

‘Some of the items that we have sponsors for, we’re actually punching well above our weight. So, when we talk about the Division 4 football team for example, there’s some items to do with that team that we are actually ahead. So, it’s not all doom and gloom. There’s some really good positivity out there.

‘We have that list of items that we are selling. Now we have to put a structure in place for who is going to actually go out and do it. On top of that there has to be a group of people that’s overseeing it. Because if I’m going out selling something for sponsorship for €5,000, and Brian is going out and selling slightly different and selling it for €2,000, there needs to be a strategy in place to make sure that there’s a good idea what’s going on across all the different teams.,’ he added.

Alan Smullen then introduced the delegates to a ‘commercial deck’ that can be changed to suit the type and size of business being approached to come on board as a sponsor. It is a positive package with interesting statistics, maps and photos that try and convey the value for that company to get involved.

Smullen said that it was important to be honest with potential sponsors and to say that Wicklow won’t be winning an All-Ireland and to highlight that Wicklow are an underdog and that that can appeal to people.

‘‘We’re not talking about a county that doesn’t have ambition,’ he continued. ‘And hasn’t put their neck out there over the last few years. There’s some big numbers there. €2m invested in the redevelopment of Aughrim, €5.5m invested in Ballinakill. We need to be positive here. We have some fantastic facilities within the county: Pearse’s Park, look at Bray, fantastic facilities right the way through. Let’s be really positive. While we might not be getting success on the field, we’re sitting in front of you guys and you are making the decisions. Wouldn’t it be amazing if you were with us from the start. You are the ones who can say in five years time, ‘yeah, we were there that first day when this lad stood up and said they were going to do x, y and z,’ he added.

‘Whatever we do get (sponsorship), we need to be investing that back into the schools, back into the coaching, because as Bryan said, ‘good coaching will get you good players’. And its only by getting good players through that we’re going to get this moving.

‘It’s not a coincidence that the Minors had success last year. There’s been a really good group of coaches bringing them right the eay through. They were being managed all along,’ he said.

Smullen unveiled the various packages that would be offered to sponsors at different levels. These ranged from the naming rights of Aughrim to sponsoring a competition.

Smullen then revealed that a fundraiser involving Wicklow GAA members attending the Punchestown Racing Festival was being considered among others.

‘As a county, do we think we should do an event in Punchestown? Do we think we have the financial pull to say we’ll sell 30 tables in Punchestown next year. Do we have the support of the clubs? Do we have the support of the GAA people. We met them last week. It’s a runner. It will take a huge amount of work,’ he said.

The Punchestown idea was very well received among the delegates, although the relatively small economical benefits in the first year was highlighted by one delegate.

It was decided to meet again in relation to the Punchestown idea.

‘Do we have the guts to go and do it, and to stand up as a county and say we are going to take 30 tables, 300 people to Punchestown, and say ‘yeah, all these people support Wicklow GAA,’’ he added.