DUBLIN’S BOOMING GAA brand needs to trickle down and benefit the capital’s clubs, Tomás Quinn said.
The former inter-county star has grabbed headlines for his starring role in St Vincent’s run to the AIB All-Ireland Club Football final.
But off the pitch “Mossy” is the commercial and marketing manager for the Dublin county board, a position he was appointed to in January.
It’s a busy brief. On top of their marquee sponsorship with insurance giants AIG, which is reported to be worth €4 million over the next five years, the Dubs have a number of other partnerships.
This week alone they announced a renewal of their deal with water brand Deep RiverRock while Toyota will be unveiled as their “official car partner” at an event next week.
It gives Dublin huge financial clout and there are well-voiced concerns that it will skew the playing field in their favour.
“I believe there is huge areas to add Dublin fans and people participating in Dublin GAA,” Quinn said.
“It all goes back into games development and promoting the county in GAA terms.
“I know the easy thing to say about Dublin is the population and the amount of money we’re getting but we’re competing against a huge number of sports. It’s important to make sure that we can continue to deliver on games promotion and development and help clubs as much as we can.”
Ninety-two clubs and an estimated 100,000 members fall under the Dublin GAA umbrella and rather than ploughing money into elite development, Quinn knows that the funds need to have a positive impact at all levels.
“If there’s something that comes in to the benefit of the county board, the knock on effect should be that it should benefit the clubs.
“If Dublin are able to sustain it, commercially and marketing wise, if you can bring something in to benefit the county boards it should knock on to the clubs.”
Not so long ago the Dubs found themselves locking horns with another of the capital’s big sporting players, Leinster Rugby, in a territorial dogfight.
But Quinn sees plenty of opportunities to expand without picking fights with a professional organisation.
“GAA is very different in these things. First and foremost, the players are professional in those sports.
“The players that play for Dublin are amateur so you can’t do a deal and tell a player he has to do something, and you would never try to get to that level.
“I obviously see a lot of areas for growth in terms of Dublin GAA but going where Leinster go? It’s a case that you’re aware of other sports and then see if there is anything you can do.”
As far as grand plans go, it’s early days for Quinn and he’s taking time to consider all of Dublin’s options.
“I’m six weeks in the job and no more than anything, you could sit around on a barstool and throw ideas to do with Dublin GAA and they’re probably all right.
“But it’s about actually putting a strategy together to actually deliver on them, putting the building blocks in.
“There’s no point in saying we’re going to have a superstore. You actually have to figure out what is the best way of doing it, how we deliver on it. Is it sustainable that it’s going to be here in four or five weeks’ time? There’s no point in having a shop and it going bust in a month. It’s one of those things.
“We’re reviewing everything at the moment and if it works for us, you might see it.”
