University of Bayreuth and FC St. Pauli to cooperate

FC St. Pauli stands for more than just soccer. With its clear political stance and social commitment, the club shows that professional football can be conducted differently. FC St. Pauli stands not only for a soccer club, but also for the St. Pauli district in Hamburg, where values such as solidarity, equality, and openness have always been a lived reality. At the same time, many associate the club with the skull symbol and thus with an unadjusted and alternative way of thinking.  "FC St. Pauli as it is perceived today was created by many generations of fans," says Martin Drust, brand manager at FC St. Pauli. "That's why the most diverse goups also identify with the club, which represents a community of values in a special and authentic way."

In order to analyse and manage the potential of FC St. Pauli, the club cooperates with the Marketing & Sports Management research group at the University of Bayreuth. "Actually, we think the word brand is stupid. But we can't ignore the fact that FC St. Pauli is a very strong brand. In order to be able to survive as a member-managed club in professional soccer in the long term, we have to figure out how to leverage our potential without losing our existing fans. We chose the University of Bayreuth because we see a great intersection between our ideas of what could work at FC St. Pauli and the research approach of the Marketing & Sports Management research group," says Drust. Specifically, both partners have agreed on these measures: scientific monitoring of FC St. Pauli's brand management, qualitative and quantitative studies, lectures, workshops, and the development of management tools.

"Strong brands create identity and ensure the long-term economic success of sports organisations. It is therefore of central importance for sports organisations to understand how brands are created and how they, as an organisation, can influence their development looking forward," explains Prof. Dr. Tim Ströbel, Chair of Marketing & Sports Management at the University of Bayreuth. Even this is a unique brand, as since 1985, it has been regarded as a European benchmark for research and teaching in the field of sports economics and sports management.

Because one of the professorship's research focuses is on the development and management of sports brands, the cooperation with FC St. Pauli promises to provide many innovative insights. "The cooperation creates excellent potential both for the club and for our research on brand management," says Lars Griebel, research assistant at Marketing & Sport Management. The cooperation offers the opportunity for an extraordinary transfer between science and practice. At the same time, the cooperation creates points of contact for answering relevant scientific questions and contributes to gaining knowledge in brand research.