HURLING SPONSORSHIP:THE GAA will have to move in the coming months to determine the future sponsorship of the hurling championship, as contracts with two of the three multi-sponsors Guinness and Etihad expire this year.

Etihad have been involved for all of those four years, but industry and Croke Park sources indicate that having been rolled over for 2011 12 months ago, the deal with the Emirates airline may not be renewed, leaving a likely vacancy in the hurling championship.

The most recent new sponsorship was with Eircom, who earlier this year took over as one of the football sponsors in a deal worth around €1.3 million per annum.

Guinness are the longest-running commercial partners of the championships, having taken on the title sponsorship of the hurling championship in 1995, the year the sponsorship was inaugurated.

Whereas the profile of the company hasn’t been as pronounced in the period of the multi-sponsor model adopted in 2008, Guinness retains a formidable association with the hurling championship.

One of the potential difficulties facing the continuing relationship with the brewer is the increasing focus on alcohol sponsorships of sport. To that extent Guinness’s more subdued role has helped reduce the heat in respect of its sponsorship although there is resentment within Croke Park that similar associations with other sports, such as the Heineken Cup and Guinness’s own sponsorship of the autumn rugby internationals don’t appear to attract the same level of opprobrium.

It will become irrelevant if there are legislative moves to restrict or even abolish the role of alcohol sponsorship in sport.

Overall the multi-sponsorship model, devised by Dermot Power the GAA’s commercial and marketing director who retires at the end of this month, has had the advantage of saving the GAA from having to raise large sums from two individual companies in the teeth of the worst recession in decades but the downside has been the amount of churn in the sponsors.

Over the four years to date Etihad would, if they don’t renew, become the fourth sponsor of the original six – three football and three hurling – to drop out, following in the footsteps of national broadcaster RTÉ, Toyota and Vodafone, now basking in the glow of success as sponsors of Dublin’s extraordinary year in both codes.

The football championship is sponsored by Ulster Bank, Super Valu and Eircom whereas the hurling partners are Centra, Guinness and Etihad.

The busy turnover of sponsors isn’t helping the clarity of public perception with a recent survey showing that 22 per cent of respondents believed Bank of Ireland was still a GAA sponsor despite having relinquished its role as title sponsor of the football championship in 2007.

Power’s commercial responsibilities will be taken over by Croke Park Stadium director Peter McKenna but the handover won’t be unduly disruptive, as negotiations wouldn’t normally be finalised until the end of the year anyway.