Sports Business Resilience in the COVID-19 Crisis: The Delphi Qualitative Approach

The present study attempts to evaluate the challenges of sports businesses in the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and introduce their resilience solutions. This research was qualitative, with the Delphi method used to conduct it. In the first phase, 9 challenges and 88 business resilience strategies were extracted in the form of a questionnaire. In the second phase, these challenges and strategies were provided to the Delphi panel consisting of 18 professors of sports management and sports business managers, who were selected in a purposeful manner through snowball sampling method. Finally, 11 challenges in the two categories of supply side challenges and demand side challenges were identified. In addition, 94 sports business resilience strategies for COVID and post-COVID eras were identified in four categories, namely marketing mix management, process management, organizational resource management, and strategic action management. These operational strategies can save sports businesses from the risk of bankruptcy and exclusion from the sports ecosystem and strengthen these firms for future crises by increasing their resilience.