Marketingová strategie fotbalového klubu AC Sparta Praha

The thesis is focused on the marketing strategy of the football club AC Sparta Prague. The aim is to record and evaluate marketing moves of the club in the period between the 2015/2016 season and the spring of 2021. The research question is "How did Sparta's game performance affect economic results and popularity of the club on social networks?". The theoretical part summarizes first two chapters of current knowledge in marketing and sports marketing. The third chapter deals with the position of Czech football in the European context and with the characteristics of domestic first division along with its problems. The fourth chapter presents the football club AC Sparta Prague and its stadium Generali Česká Pojišťovna Arena. The practical part contains the research itself consisting of two main sections. First compiling a timeline with important marketing moves in the reviewed period, and then examining the impact of game performance on selected marketing and economic indicators. The outputs from both sections are then used to find the key connections between the marketing strategy and observed indicators and subsequently to evaluate the marketing strategy in the form of a SWOT analysis, from which recommendations for future action are derived. The result of the thesis is the finding that game performance and arrival of new players had an impact on the popularity of the club on social networks and on indicators of income from advertising and sponsorship and also from business activities. The thesis declares marketing strategy of AC Sparta Prague as successful, mainly due to maintaining growth of match attendance and expanding the fan base on the Internet despite a decline in sports results, and also due to creating and maintaining a position of the national leader in the area of implementing new trends from abroad.