ON THE MORNING of 20 January, news of a landmark deal in women’s sports filtered through on Irish media outlets.
That time period also witnessed the Camogie Association announce a new five-year joint sponsorship with Glen Dimplex and Carmel Naughton. This was a particularly important move, given that the association had no title sponsor in place for last year’s All-Ireland championship. Westerwood Global's Basil Holian [left] pictured at the Galway camogie sponsorship launch with Galway captain Sarah Dervan and Galway camogie chairman Brian Griffin. Source: Sam Barnes/SPORTSFILE
These camogie sponsorship arrangements may perhaps indicate an increased sense of interest among companies to explore business opportunities with female sports teams. “There was an element around eight or nine years ago that it was a box-ticking exercise in some cases. Whereas brands are really waking up to the fact that women’s sport is a whole new market. It’s a market that can deliver far better value.
These figures were released after what was an exceptional year for women’s sport. Boxer Kellie Harrington brought the nation together after winning a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in August.Katie Taylor was continuing her unbeaten run in professional boxing by successfully defending her world titles, while Rachael Blackmore was the toast of horse racing with her six winners in Cheltenham as well as her Grand National triumph.
All of these critical moments in women’s sport culminated in the striking statistics gathered in the TSSI. Holian’s Westerwood Global were “overwhelmed” by the positive response to their sponsorship deal with Galway camogie, and the amount of money they were willing to invest in the team. “And that was the mindset of us saying, ‘Ok, we’re giving €50,000 per annum for five years. We’ll be supporting outside of that through a lot of things we’re doing, regardless of the money.’
“Sport Ireland have the women’s sport policy and one of the pillars of that is visibility. And they’re really pushing female sports and their promotion of it. It’s shifting everything if you like and I suppose the crux of what’s pushing it and what’s of interest to media is that the performances are commanding media coverage.