Lilywhites not making the most of commercial value
LAST season 20 of Dundalk’s 55 competitive matches were screened live on television, making the League champions the most popular choice for the TV companies, RTE, and eirSport who cover the domestic soccer scene.
Nine of those games were in the SSE Airtricity League, six in the Champions and Europa Leagues, two in the FAI Cup, both legs of Unite the Union Champions Cup and the remaining fixture screened live was the EA Sports Cup final in Derry.
The high percentage of Dundalk games screened is undoubtedly due to the club’s status as League champions, their appeal to a wider TV audience and their involvement in the latter stages of the FAI and EA League Cups plus their European football campaign.
In addition to the live broadcast of almost a third of Dundalk’s matches, the club featured heavily in the Monday night highlights programme and the official UEFA magazine featuring European matches.
Two questions therefore must arise for Dundalk that should be confronted as a result of their extensive exposure to TV. The first of which should be the return that they are getting from the TV companies for featuring their games, and the second and equally important question must involve the club asking if they themselves are fully exploiting their popular commercial value.
Regarding the first question, it is a long held view of all of the clubs in the League of Ireland (LOI) that they are getting a paltry return from the TV companies for allowing their games to be screened live for the clubs maintain that the fee, if any indeed is paid, does not compensate for the loss of ‘gate’ receipts from those remaining at home to watch the game on TV.
On many occasions in recent reasons Dundalk have made the point that their ‘gates’ are down by an average of 1,000 when games are screened live on TV, with the recent Champions Cup game with Linfield a clear example of that trend.
Yet when clubs ask the FAI, who handle the negotiations with the TV companies and leave clubs with no choice when their games are selected by the broadcasters, they are told that such information is ‘commercially sensitive’.
The best guess of the clubs and others involved in the game is that the TV companies pay in the region of €250,000 for the rights to screen a specific games a season, and that deal is linked in with the rights extended to live screening of some fixtures played by the Republic of Ireland senior team.
Unquestionably the money involved represents a pittance when compared with the TV deals negotiated in other countries, most notably in Scotland - a League and a country not much bigger than Ireland
Picture: Ken Finegan/Newspics - where the Scottish FA recently negotiated a deal with SKY reported to be in the region of £30m.over the five year period of the contract.
Of course the case always made by the TV companies negotiating with the FAI is that the audience share that domestic soccer attracts does not justify spending more of their limited budgets in covering the domestic soccer scene.
To counter that argument the clubs maintain that the audience figures for matches are seldom revealed, while it is the view of the clubs that the TV companies, especially RTE, do not do enough to promote the domestic game with a glaring example being the manner in which cutbacks have impacted on the previously popular Monday night magazine programme.
It could also be pointed out by Dundalk that a number of the games in which they featured last season provided excellent entertainment for the TV audiences such as their League clash with Shamrock Rovers in Oriel Park, the EA Cup final with Derry City, all of their European games, and the second leg of their Champions Cup tie with Linfield.
Because Dundalk’s games featured so heavily in recent seasons on TV, the club will naturally feel somewhat aggrieved that they do not receive the biggest share of the TV money, but the reality is that in most Leagues, such as the Premier League in England, the distribution of the TV money is agreed well in advance and in such a way that it does not discriminate against the smaller clubs.
If, and when, the FAI ever gets its act together and starts to give priority to the marketing of the LOI, the case must be advanced with some conviction for a bigger share of the money that TV companies allocate to sport, for over the last season there were some exceptional games involving Dundalk, Rovers, Bohemians and Derry City which provided excellent entertainment for TV audiences - as good as many English League games.
It would help of course if talks on an All-Ireland League come to some fruition which would broaden the appeal to TV, but that prospect seems remote at this stage.
The other relevant point to be made in relation to the extensive TV coverage that Dundalk receive must revolve round the club’s own limitations in fully exploiting their commercial advantage.
Eleven of the games in which Dundalk featured on live TV were played in Oriel Park, yet a better return could be realised from ground advertising with the installation of electronic bill boards and match sponsorship giving the sponsors more TV exposure for their input.
Over recent seasons Fyffes with Total Produce have been excellent sponsors for the club, as have CX+ who have produced not only quality, well designed playing gear, but popular casual wear.
However, sadly CX+ have had to end their sponsorship of the team’s playing and training gear, as well as their leisure range, with Umbro taking over from last week.
The initial reaction to the new playing shirt has not been favourable, and Dundalk need to address this issue, as well as trying to get a better return for the logo exposure on their shirts, given that the team featured on the majority of games screened live last season.