MLS: fotbalový trh a ekonomické vazby

The main focus of this diploma thesis is on the North American competition in soccer called Major League Soccer. The goal is to analyze the football players market of this competition in the last five years together with geographic and economic linkages. To accomplish this goal, a hypothesis and research questions are defined. The hypothesis is based on an assumption that the growing popularity of MLS is partially linked to growing community of Hispanics in the USA, which will display on the football players market. The research methods used in this thesis are analysis, comparison, correlation, and synthesis. The thesis is divided into three chapters. First chapter is theory based, it summarizes recent findings in this topic, provides demographics development in the USA and points out some specifics of this league. Second chapter is devoted to five-year football players market analysis and to a comparison of salaries with other major leagues in North America. In the last chapter, there is an analysis of attendance in relation to Hispanic community and there are described linkages between MLS and some of its sponsors.