Introduction: Sports tourism refers to travel which involves either observing or participating in a sporting event staying apart from their usual environment. There are several classifications on sport tourism. Gammon and Robinson suggested that the sports tourism are defined as Hard Sports Tourism and Soft Sports Tourism, while Gibson suggested that there are three types of sports tourism included Sports Event Tourism, Celebrity and Nostalgia Sport Tourism and Active Sport Tourism. Sport event tourism refers to the visitors who visit a city to watch event. The two events that attract the most tourists worldwide are the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup. Evaluating of sport tourism marketing function in Ardebil and also studying the effect of any factors related to sport tourism marketing mix on the promotion of tourism industry are the two purposes followed in this research.
Methodology: The subject of the research is applied, and its nature and methodology is descriptive- analytic. Data collecting is done by field study, and For analyzing the data, In the research, Chi- Square test is used.
Results: The results show that, sport tourism marketing function in Ardebil is at average level because of the weakness in three related factors to tourism marketing mix (promotion, planning and management, participation).
Discussion: In order to improve the function of sport tourism marketing in Ardebil there are some recommendations which include, publicizing of sport events in national and provincial media, introducing sport events, athletics, champions in virtual world, online services for ticket preparation, attracting sponsors for different sport team.