Dublin get SHIRTY

While the GAA hasn’t fully opened up the lucrative world of replica kit, one county leads the way

WHEN Liam Hayes took charge of the Carlow footballers in the mid-noughties, he wanted to change not just the way they played but how they dressed too. It was partly to break a negative association; the garish rainbow-coloured jerseys were not just hard on sensitive eyes but also on those who wore them, linking them to a bowed past.

But it was not just the colour of the shirts he had in mind, but also the colour of cash.

‘I had some contacts in Adidas at the time so the intention was to get them in and get a few quid to help the team at the same time. But it never happened, the board said that they were getting a free set of jerseys off O’Neill’s and that was that,’ recalled Hayes this week.

Behind the closed doors of Parnell Park last Monday night where the Dublin county board’s management committee signed off on a threeyear-deal with Ireland’s biggest sportswear manufacturer, the only certainty is that they managed to strike a harder deal than that.

As ever, the figure remains a mystery. The only hint is that it was less than what the Italian sportswear company Macron had put on the table.

That was a deal that Dublin could not touch under Rule 1.17, which stipulates that the manufacturers and the branding on official gear must be from Irish-based companies.

Waterford-based Azzurri, who have a licence from Croke Park to manufacture gear, entered the fray at this stage and it is likely that Dublin, the first county board to put its own marketing department in place (headed up by former county star Tomás Quinn) managed to use that interest to squeeze the best deal possible.

It is believed to amount to a very healthy six-figure sum, and is almost certainly the most lucrative strip deal signed by a county board in the association’s history. Apart from that, we are left to fumble in the dark.

If the GAA is an association which prides itself on the transparency of its accounts ledger, it is matched by its ability to hide what it would deem to be ‘commercially sensitive’ detail in a forest of numbers.

Not only do we not know how much Dublin pocketed, but there is no number out there as to how much the GAA merchandise market is worth.

Given that the association’s corporate logo is stamped on every piece of official merchandise and O’Neill’s have currently secured the contract of every county with the exception of Waterford (Azzurri) and Sligo (Kukri), the value of that market, while not shared with the public, has long been quantified.

What is known is that it is growing year on year. That is inevitable for all kinds of reasons; not least that the replica jersey has long crossed the line from being a flag of support to leisure-wear. And the GAA has not been backward when hitting the catwalk.

Most of the bigger counties will have ‘second’ jerseys on offer, as well as goalkeeper shirts, while the decision to go pink in support of breast cancer has opened up a whole other market.

And it has expanded to include a variety of other clothing options from hats to coats, t-shirts to hoodies. The GAA is now a one-stop clothing shop.

It is more than paying its way, but, as ever, more for some than others. For the bulk of counties, a contract with O’Neill’s is negotiated on three strands.

There is the sponsorship agreement which ensures the company commit to kit out all of a county’s teams with gear. If exceeded, the county will have to pay for the extras.

There is a ball contract, which again sees the company commit to supplying a certain amount free of charge.

And finally there are the replica shirt terms, which usually includes a bottom line figure to guarantee a county a fixed minimum sum irrespective of what is sold up to a certain number.

After that there is an incremental payment for every shirt shifted.

In effect, it amounts to a performance bonus. If a county reaches a provincial final or enjoys a run to the latter stages of the All-Ireland series, the more shirts sold to supporters means there is a greater chance of a cash return.

The reality is that the bottom line tends to remain the bottom line for most.

SUCCESS oils the wheels of GAA commerce like nothing else. The stronger counties strike better deals. For example, those at the lower to middle end of the scale only get their added cash injection from replica shirts specifically, while the stronger counties, not least Dublin, would be in a far stronger position to demand royalties from every product line that bears their crest.

The other guaranteed revenue booster is the launch of a newly-

From hats to hoodies, the GAA is now a one-stop clothing shop

designed jersey, which leads to an automatic jump in sales.

Dublin will unveil a new kit this May prior to the start of Championship. It will represent the ninth different strip which the county have worn since 2000.

That might prompt raised eyebrows, but it is in keeping with GAA norms and is a world away from the annual jersey changes that are a feature of professional soccer across the water.

In the Premier League, inflation levels have long soared beyond the credible – Manchester United signing a £750million (€970m) deal with Adidas – but while it is a world away, the same principles apply.

The more the supplier pays for the contract, the bigger the pound of flesh becomes and, ultimately, it is the supporter who gets to pay. It is not the only lesson that the GAA will warily take into account.

In soccer, the individual has supplanted the team as the principal driving force in the sale of replica jerseys. For example, it is estimated that of the 1.58million Real Madrid shirts sold last year, almost a million bore the name and number of Cristiano Ronaldo. There have been calls in the recent past, including from the GPA, for the GAA to go down the route of allowing squad numbers and names on jerseys to promote the profile of inter-county players.

Its reticence to go down that road may, in part, be in fear of the commercial can of worms that might open.

When the game’s most marketable stars start making the tills chime, then the argument that those players should also get a slice of the pie that is currently shared between the strip providers, retailers, Croke Park and county boards, will grow too loud to be ignored.

Should that happen, the GAA might just lose the shirt that it has been wearing since 1884 right off its back.

Putting names on jerseys might open a commercial can of worms