American Football game presents major marketing opportunity for Navan

Navan Town Council are going to use the American Football game being played in Pairc Taileann in August next to market the town as a tourist and business destination. At a meeting of the council last week, Navan town clerk Shane Donnelly said this was a huge opportunity for the town. "Everything is now coming together for Navan. One of the things that will really sell this is the Navan Town Marketing Plan," he said. Navan will host a a major American Football tournament between two high school teams at Pairc Tailteann on 31st August. Cllr Shane Cassells proposed that the council mark the unique occasion with festivities on the day, in order to welcome the thousands of American tourists who are expected to travel to Navan for the game. He also suggesteed they approach Navan Chamber of Commerce, Meath Tourism and Meath County Board with a view to working together, considering the huge potential economic gain to Navan. Cllr Cassells pointed out that high school football in the US attracts crowds of 50,000 to 60,000 to some games, but there will be competition from other venues around the country who are also hosting games. He pointed out that Trim is organising a festival around the event and it was important that Navan would roll out the red carpet. Cllr Joe Reilly said Navan would have to develop its own tourism strategy. "I've always argued that, although we contribute to Meath Tourism, Navan is not focused on in the same way that Newgrange, Slane, Trim or Kells are," he said. "Nobody out there is going to direct traffic to us. We have to do it ourselves," he added. Cllr Padraig Fitzsimons said the event was an opportunity for which Navan had been waiting for a very long time. "Despite the huge marketing of the Solheim Cup, Navan didn't benefit as much as it should have," he claimed. Cllr Suzanne Jamal said Navan definitely needed to be sold on this occasion and the town council needed to be the main driver.