Beware the solution that cheapens the game
MATT Damon, our man spotted with his swimming trunks in a SuperValu bag, could tell Cork GAA a thing or two about stadium naming rights.
When the Hollywood A-lister found himself hunkering down in Dalkey during the first lockdown of 2020 as the cast and crew of The Last Duel moved to Ireland for filming, he quickly endeared himself to the local community with his very local way of not just shopping but swimming local — even managing to combine the two.
Not surprisingly, when the photograph of the Oscar-nominated actor appeared online, it quickly went viral.
It wouldn’t be the last time though Damon would go viral.
In 2021, Matt Damon became the Hollywood actor most associated with stadium naming rights and the murky world of cryptocurrency.
When Crypto.com — a cryptocurrency trading platform based out of Singapore — took over the naming rights for what was originally known as Staples Center in Los Angeles, they paid $700million for the pleasure.
AT that point, the venue was home to NBA giant franchises the Los Angeles Lakers with its superstar LeBron James and the Los Angeles Clippers.
A $1million donation to Water. org, a charity co-founded by Damon, encouraged the actor to then star in an ad for Crypto.com that didn’t just feature during primetime American sports games but gained a global audience via YouTube.
Slick and super produced, in it, Damon convincingly spoke of why it was worth the risk: ‘History is filled with almosts — those who almost adventured… who almost achieved… but ultimately, for them it proved to be too much. Then there are others: the ones who embrace the moment and commit. And in these moments of truth, these men and women, these mere mortals, just like you and me… as they peer over the edge, they calm their minds and steel their nerves with four simple words that have been whispered by the intrepid since the time of the Romans: “Fortune favors the brave.”’
A year or so later, the ad was again trending — for all the wrong reasons. Damon’s suggestion that only cowards would fail to buy cryptocurrency looked shockingly ill-advised in the light of a cryptocurrency crash that saw twothirds wiped off many investments.
In pro sport in America, where franchises routinely uproot from their very home town and where history and heritage and tradition can be bought by a trading exchange, stadium naming rights have become just another part of a highly commercialised world. Similarly on this side of the Atlantic, whether that’s the Premier League and the United Arab Emirates portfolio of Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium or Arsenal’s Emirates. Or closer to home with the insurance company palindrome that has replaced Lansdowne Road.
It’s easy to imagine the words of Matt Damon echoing from top table at the Cork county board meeting on Tuesday evening, how fortune favours the brave for those who ‘calm their minds and steel their nerves’.
Except the stalling of the deal to rename Páirc Uí Chaoimh as SuperValu Park looks likely to be added to Damon’s scripted list of how history is filled with almosts.
Ultimately, judging by the public and political backlash, with even proud Cork native and Tánaiste Micheál Martin weighing in against the airbrushing of Pádraig Ó Caoimh’s name from modern history, it looks like SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh will be the acceptable compromise.
Or almost SuperValu Park, as Damon might say.
Notwithstanding the political opportunism of the former Taoiseach — the line mentioning how the Government allocated €30m towards the development of the stadium ‘and never sought naming rights’ was bizarre, as if Taxpayers Páirc Uí Chaoimh was an option.
The reason Cork GAA has gone down the road of selling off part of the family silver is the age-old one: money problems. A project that overran wildly to eventually cost around €110million has a legacy debt of €30million to service.
Commercial imperatives mean it has to be serviced. In one sense, Cork GAA would be foolish to turn down a naming rights partnership that is estimated at €1.5million over five years.
And SuperValu is a natural fit in plenty of ways, being embedded in the community. As a sponsorship, it works on many levels — particularly at a time when the GAA has taken the high moral ground and shown leadership to rule out partnerships with drinks companies or betting companies, often the most lucrative kind.
Because the association is meant to stand for something else. Something more.
It’s not a pro sport. So it has to be much more careful of selling off its history and tradition.
The association is not for profit, that’s the essential key. An amateur, community-based organisation.
The backlash on this carries echoes of the backlash to the Sky Sports deal which put a portion of Championship matches behind a subscription paywall. To the element of GAAGO which did the same for last year’s Munster hurling championship — albeit for a small fee which the GAA benefits from per match.
To the rumblings over ticketless systems or cashless turnstiles that tend to discommode older supporters.
The GAA is constantly having to straddle that line between financial imperatives and maintaining its sense of self — the values and the history and tradition that has underpinned the association as it continues to evolve with the times.
Here, the outcry is fuelled by the idea that Ó Caoimh’s name deserves to live on, someone who served as general secretary of the GAA from 1929-1964 and left an enduring legacy with his grassroots vision to double the number of clubs around the country.
IT’S not that long ago, remember, that the board launched a strategic plan that mentioned the term ‘Corkness’. And yet here is something that dilutes the sense of Corkness attached to the county’s main ground.
No more than the attachment of FBD to Semple Stadium in Thurles which has a rich enough heritage in the name itself.
The idea that the GAA is one remove from Coca-Cola Croke Park and selling naming rights for headquarters looks less likely judging by the backlash this week, irrespective of the 17 county grounds with naming rights attached.
Perhaps the penny is dropping that selling naming rights doesn’t necessarily add value. It might bring in revenue but there’s an irony in that, in broader terms, it can also serve to cheapen.
To reduce history and heritage and tradition to something that can merely be traded. Like a crypto currency that promises to add value only to reduce the value of investment.