News

Sparta has a new official partner – the University of New York in Prague!

You can already see the name of Sparta Floorball’s new partner on the male elite team’s jerseys. “Floorball is a fresh, energetic and popular sport that builds character. We feel it is a good source of inspiration for our student body,” says UNYP’s General Manager Sotiris Foutsis. UNYP’s partnership with Sparta Floorball will also support the junior and youth teams as well.

According to UNYP, the main reason for partnering with Sparta was to maintain and strengthen the University’s Prague roots. “We wanted to find a way to connect our students to Prague and we felt that the sponsorship of the Sparta Floorball teams was a great way to accomplish it,” explains UNYP Marketing Director Mark Anderson. Of all the Prague floorball teams, why Sparta? “The Sparta athletic association is a Prague icon and brand. As a floorball team, they are smart, well-educated and respectable, so the connection just makes sense,” Mark says.

UNYP will be the Official Partner of three Sparta Floorball teams, but that is not all. Mark describes some of the other advantages of the cooperation: “Our University will also be the Official Partner of the junior, youth and male elite teams. We hope that the long-term relationship will be beneficial to UNYP students as well – in a normal sports sponsorship, it’s all about the money and logo, but this is more of a true win-win partnership. Their players will be given an orientation about UNYP so they can understand their new partner and speak to the benefits of having the University as a Partner, while UNYP students will also be introduced to Sparta in their orientation. We want to support each other. We are also excited to announce that the Male Elite team players will be working with UNYP to build our very own UNYP Blazers Floorball team.”

The University of New York in Prague generally has a very proactive relationship with sport and fitness. “We strongly believe that a fit body makes a fit mind. As part of their studies here, all UNYP students are provided with free gym membership and pool access. Additionally, we have our very own UNYP Blazers football and basketball team. So we have a long tradition in supporting sports for our students, and we look forward to integrating this partnership further to provide even more opportunities to our students,” explains Mark.

And what does Jiří Krejča, the president of the floorball club ACEMA Sparta Praha, say about the partnership? “I am very glad that my long term friendship with Mark Anderson has helped us to achieve this cooperation. Mark is a tough negotiator, but at the end we found a way to make this partnership happen. The contract was signed for one year, and will be extended if both sides are satisfied. I really hope that UNYP will become a long-term partner of our club – as floorball is a student sport, a partnership with a university makes a lot of sense.”

___________________________________________________________________

For more information about the University of New York in Prague, a higher educational institution offering study programs in English since 1998, please contact marketing@unyp.cz. For more information about AC Sparta Praha contact marketing@sparta-florbal.cz