{"id":202731,"date":"2025-11-27T09:14:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T09:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/202731\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T09:14:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T09:14:12","slug":"rds-members-bridle-at-instruction-to-use-laya-arena-name-for-showgrounds-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/202731\/","title":{"rendered":"RDS members bridle at instruction to use Laya Arena name for showgrounds \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was 2015 when Laya Healthcare <\/a>was first linked in media reports with the naming rights of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS)<\/a> main arena in Ballsbridge. <\/p>\n

The sponsorship <\/a>was designed to help pay for the redevelopment of the creaking old stadium to deliver a modern new home for Leinster Rugby, the Dublin Horse Show and various concerts. <\/p>\n

For one reason or another, the redevelopment plan dragged on and Laya<\/a>\u2019s multimillion euro deal was only formally confirmed this week as the \u20ac52 million stadium upgrade moves towards completion in the summer of next year. <\/p>\n

The health insurer <\/a>has arguably already received significant bang for its marketing buck by just being associated in the ether with the RDS naming rights over the past decade. <\/p>\n

This week\u2019s formal announcement of the sponsorship agreement prompted the leadership of the 294 year-old Royal Dublin Society to dispatch correspondence on the deal to its 2,900 members. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis financial support [from Laya] is highly valued by the RDS<\/a>. As RDS members, your recognition of this support and your leadership is consistently calling the arena by its new name: Laya Arena, is crucial,\u201d the note from RDS chief executive officer Paul Kelly stated. <\/p>\n

\"\"If Irish households are so rich, why does it feel like an illusion?<\/p>\n

\u201cFailure to adapt the name, Laya Arena, risks damaging our relationship with this key commercial partner and jeopardises our ability to attract other potential and vital sponsors for future RDS initiatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour support in adopting and advocating for the new name is greatly appreciated.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cantillon is aware that the direct language in the note did not go down well with some of the RDS\u2019s well-heeled membership, who took umbrage at being instructed about what to call their hallowed turf. <\/p>\n

Former F\u00e1ilte Ireland chief Kelly took the reins at the RDS in September and this message may be a signal of a more direct approach from the chief executive\u2019s office. <\/p>\n

Either way, a directive to use the new name was hardly the best introduction to members on behalf of the sponsor. To many members, the RDS will always simply be the RDS. Laya sponsorship or not. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was 2015 when Laya Healthcare was first linked in media reports with the naming rights of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[2355,18,19,17,14926,111685,12862,132],"class_list":["post-202731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cantillon","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-laya-health","tag-laya-sponsored","tag-rds","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115620903177284695","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}