The greening of Sunderland FC continues apace. The English Premier League club has recruited Dubliner Paul Keogh to its board to help it maximise revenue opportunities overseas.
The Niall Quinn-led Drumaville consortium of Irish investors has been busily tapping the corporate market here, with some success, for sponsorship and hospitality opportunities since their takeover in 2006.
Irish bookie Boylesports is the shirt sponsor and every fortnight at least one planeload of punters flies with Aer Arann over to Wearside to catch a home game.
Sunderland now plans to spread its net wider, to include Scandinavia and elsewhere in a bid to grow its fan base and generate additional revenue.
Keogh, a director of Ballymore Properties, is an interesting choice. He has previously worked for PolyGram, Guinness, Budweiser and JCB bulldozers.
He also had a hand in launching Irish boy band Boyzone in the 1990s.
It has been a whirlwind 18 months for Sunderland under Drumaville's ownership with Roy Keane bringing promotion to the cash-rich Premier League ahead of schedule.
The success hasn't gone unnoticed.
Landsbanki, the Icelandic owner of Merrion Stockbrokers, is believed to have inquired about investing in the club during the summer but was politely rebuffed. Drumaville is there for the long haul.
