Designing an Investment Attraction Model in Sports Projects

Introduction

The importance of sports development is highlighted primarily by scientists based on its social role, but at the same time, physical education and sports have a direct impact on the economics of countries (Saveleva, 2019). The sports industry is growing day by day and a high percentage of studies are on the impact of the development of the sports industry on economic development and its influencing factors (Li et al., 2022). Today, the sports industry is considered as an effective factor in economic growth and development and is considered one of the largest profitable industries in the 21st century (Veisy et al., 2016); But it is important to note that the share of sports in the national economy has a direct relationship with the amount of investment made in this sector (Li, 2012).

Following investment in sports, the amount of direct and indirect employment increases, and besides, the possibility of attracting income through holding international competitions, attracting tourists, and the level of health and physical and mental health of the society increases (Rostamzadeh et al., 2014). In developed countries such as Italy, England and Germany, the share of sports in the gross national product is 2%, 1.7% and 1.4%, respectively, while in our country this share is only 0.38% (keshavarz et al., 2017). Research shows that in Australia, to improve people's health and support professional sports in 2005, more than 155 billion dollars were spent on sports investments; Research also shows that England has invested more than 250 million pounds directly in its sport by investing in more than 2500 sports projects. The investment strategy in England is used as a supplement to the general goal, which is to increase the participation of people in sports and leisure time in this country (Safari & Ahmadi-Rad, 2018).

One of the investment opportunities that, if properly planned, are associated with significant benefits, is investing in the sports projects. Throughout history, the largest building constructions have always aroused the enthusiasm of people, and among them, the largest sports venues in the world are very popular and evoke many emotions (Siemińska, 2020). Sports venues have undergone significant changes over time, especially in the last two centuries. Sports facilities have evolved over the years to become architectural wonders and act as economic catalysts for growth to advance financial and geopolitical goals. Building new facilities or improving existing facilities serves to respond to the increasing number of participants and improve environmental conditions. Although the evidence shows that it is difficult to analyze the economic benefits of developing sports facilities due to the huge costs incurred by investors, the long-term economic benefits such as job creation and increased income at the local and national level are significant (Raharja et al., 2021). Also, the sports facilities of the new generation may bring urban reconstruction, such as the urban reconstruction of London with Tottenham Hotspur and Highbury with the Emirates Stadium (Puglisi & Baiardi, 2019). The main obstacle in the investment process is the lack of direct returnable benefits, while a positive attitude towards sports and related matters will bring rich profits directly and indirectly to investors in the future. The existence of a positive attitude towards sports in advanced societies has caused huge investments in sports. It can be said that sports is a long-term investment whose effect on growth and development is clear and certain (Rostamzadeh et al., 2014). The amount of capital required for the construction of sports facilities depends on several factors that determine whether this project is a normal, standard or unique project. This factor can affect the level of investment risk and the investor's decision in providing capital (Siemińska, 2020). In the field of construction and completion of sports projects, there are investors who accept the risk of participation in sports projects according to the type and goals of investment.

The government sector of the sports industry is responsible for developing sports policies, allocating financial assistance for infrastructure development, nurturing talents and designing specialized programs for the overall development of sports (Swart et al., 2014). But it seems that providing the sports budget through the government leads to incurring high costs for the government, so that the studies show that the investment or subsidies given by the American government for the construction or reconstruction of sports facilities between 1990 and 2010 has incurred the debts of local governments (Friedman & Beissel, 2020). It seems that the sports sector needs a basic review and special attention in order to overcome this situation and to reduce the huge expenses on the public budget. In this regard, the most important mechanisms to solve this problem are to give more space to the private sector and privatization in this area and prevent the development of the role of the government and quasi-private sectors with a governmental nature (Amiri et al., 2014). In an era when government financial resources are limited and public demand is increasing, sometimes the government cooperates with non-governmental organizations to produce goods or provide services, and to solve these problems, it uses public-private partnership policy strategies (Fang et al., 2020). Also, the private sector is able to supply and produce goods and services independently with high efficiency due to the existence of competition and having completely different goals, management, structure and human resources (Mohramzadeh & Ghayebzadeh, 2015); Also, the culture of endowment and attracting benefactors is one of the most valuable ways to provide financial resources for centers and public services, and nowadays many efforts are made to make sports visible to benefactors (Amiri Perian et al., 2021); Therefore, effective and targeted actions based on specialized knowledge are necessary for proper exploitation and maximum capital attraction from each of the aforementioned sources.

In general, it is very important to focus on the importance of sports infrastructure as an element of the structure of urban places that has a positive effect on physical activity and sports (Jaworek et al., 2020). However, studies show that investment in the sports and the implementation of the planned strategies has not had a favorable trend in the country's physical education and sports (Emami et al., 2020). Governments and officials have started sports projects in different periods of time, the basis of which may not be correct, and every official introduces the existence of such projects as the legacy of his previous government. The lack of investment in sports and lack of sports facilities in Iran is an undeniable fact. The number of safe, high-quality, and standard sports facilities for holding international sports events and competitions does not reach the number of fingers on one hand. The big sports clubs in Iran, despite the fact that they have earned income from the sale of tickets for popular matches, the sale of players and advertisements, do not have their own sports fields and stadiums, while in many countries, sports clubs operate like commercial enterprises and make significant capital for the club (Askarzadeh & Heidarinejad, 2010). The available evidence confirms the poor state of sports projects in the country and in this situation one of the most important and fundamental ways to overcome stagnation and growth in these conditions is to attract financial resources; However, achieving the desired results in this area requires extensive planning based on scientific research and the adaptation of programs to the basic needs of the studied society (Sadeghipour et al., 2016). Therefore, considering the limitations and opportunities available for attracting investment from various sources in the country, comprehensive planning based on a scientific framework is necessary to attract financial resources in a favorable way. Although attracting investment in sports has been investigated in various researches, researchers have not addressed this issue in the field of sports projects in a comprehensive manner. Therefore, in the current research, the presentation of the investment attraction model in sports projects based on the data-based theorizing approach was considered.

Research Methods

The current research is applied in terms of purpose and qualitative research in terms of data collection. Among the various approaches of data-based theory building, the systematic approach of Strauss and Corbin (1998) was used (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Data collection was done through semi-structured interviews. The statistical community of the research was formed by sports managers and also faculty members who are knowledgeable about the research field. In the section of sports managers, managers who had operational experience in managing sports projects and attracting financial sponsors were considered, and in the section of faculty members, prominent professors in the field of sports marketing were considered.

A statistical sample was selected using a purposeful method (Snowball sampling). The interviews continued until theoretical saturation was reached and the number of interviewees was equal to 14 people (including 8 managers and 6 faculty members). In order to check the validity of the research results, Lincoln and Guba's (1985) evaluation criteria were considered, which include credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability criteria (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Table (1) summarizes Lincoln and Guba's(1985) trustworthiness criteria and the techniques to achieve them in the present study:

Table 1- Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) trustworthiness criteria and techniques for establishing them

In order to analyze the data, version 10 of MAXQDA software was used.

Findings

Data review and analysis was done through three stages of open, axial and selective coding. In the open coding stage, each component was given a title and a label. This title, which is called the code in the terminology, is indicative of the content of the data. At this stage, 138 concepts were identified, which after removing duplicates, reduced the context to 109 concepts. Furthermore, in the axial coding stage, by comparing different concepts, more common areas are discovered, which provides the possibility of classifying similar concepts in the form of the same classifications. The number of categories discovered at this stage was 29. Finally, in the selective coding stage, the common aspects of the categories emerging from the previous stage were identified and organized in a more general and limited category and finally 13 core categories were identified.

The results related to the causal conditions of the central phenomenon of the research are presented in Table 2. In this study, causal conditions refer to the factors that lead to the attraction of investment in sports projects.

Table 2- Concepts, categories and core categories related to causal conditions

Contextual conditions express a certain set of factors affecting the attraction of investment in sports projects, which provide the conditions for attracting financial resources. The concepts and components of this section are categorized in two core categories, media-related factors and cultural factors in Table 3.

Table 3- Concepts, categories and core categories related to contextual conditions

Table 4 shows the concepts, categories and core categories related to the interfering conditions in attracting investment in sports projects.

Table 4- Concepts, categories and core categories related to intervening conditions

Strategies and measures are plans and actions that help to attract investment in sports projects. In the coding stage, finally, 3 core categories were identified in the field of strategies, which can be seen in table 5.

Table 5- Concepts, categories and core categories related to strategies

Consequences include visible or invisible results that are caused by attracting investment in sports projects. These results are presented in table 6 in the form of health promotion at different dimensions, promotion of sports at different levels and growth of the sports industry.

Table 6- Concepts, categories and core categories related to consequences

The final structure of the investment attraction model in sports projects is presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The final model of investment attraction in sports projects

Discussion

The experience of developed countries shows that investment development has been one of the main factors of their economic growth and development (Emami et al., 2020), and sports and especially sports projects is not an exception to this rule; Therefore, considering the limitations and opportunities of investing in sports, it is necessary to have a comprehensive framework for attracting investment in sports projects in a favorable way, which is considered in the current research based on the foundation's data theory building approach. In the following, the results will be discussed in the section of causal factors, contextual factors, intervening factors, strategies and consequences.

In the causal factors section, three factors were identified including factors related to managers, organizational and economic factors. The presence of capable and expert managers directly affects investment in sports. Economic managers can help attract capital in sports, and managers with less economic expertise and less influence have a low ability to attract financial resources. The basic functions of management include specific steps that are followed to achieve specific goals in a logical flow (Bilohur et al., 2022). Skilled and expert managers based on their inherent and acquired ability to attract investors, have negotiation skills and retain current investors, and they also understand the importance of attracting capital from foreign sources, the results of which are in the word and the action, and support of successful employees is evident in this field. On the other hand, the experience and successful record of these managers can be a positive and motivating point in the supporters' willingness to cooperate and invest. In this regard, the results of Rezaei's (2018) showed that effective management mechanisms are one of the effective mechanisms for income generation of football clubs. Also, based on the results of Jamaat and Ehsani (2011), managerial-legal obstacles were identified as one of the obstacles of financial support for sports in the companies of Kaveh Industrial City. The lack of use of managers with commercial thinking and income generation in sports and the absence of marketing specialists in companies were introduced as obstacles in this sector; Also, based on the results of Jobour et al.'s study (2013), lack of knowledge, experience and management skills are among the most important factors affecting investors' reluctance to participate and invest in public-private partnership projects. Economic factors are among the other factors that attract investment in sports projects. Two main categories were identified in this sector were investment risk and financial facilities. Capital owners are looking for opportunities that can achieve the highest financial profit with minimal risk; for this reason, reducing the risk in every investment situation and providing financial facilities can somehow affect the willingness of investors. Yong (2004) considers the conditions and economic system of countries as an important factor in attracting sports sponsors and considers the existence of a competitive structure in the economy of countries as a driving factor for the development of financial support for sports (Yang, 2004). In this regard, the results of Mohammadi et al.’s (2021) study in identifying public sector financing obstacles for construction projects in Isfahan province showed that economic and financial obstacles are the most important factor; Also, the results of Poorpartovi and Shamsdoost research (2017) showed that the economic factor is the most important factor influencing the decision-making of investors in the sports industry. In the current research, organizational factors were identified as the third causal factor affecting the attraction of investors. Policy-making, having a plan and goal in the field of attracting sponsors, having a supportive organizational structure and communication, and having motivated and expert human resources in this field can attract investors in a targeted manner to invest in sports projects. In Afshari et al.'s research (2018), managerial and organizational factors were introduced as the most important factor in attracting capital for sports projects in West Azarbaijan Province; Also, the results of the research by Rajaei and Khorasani (2015) showed that the obstacles caused by the structure of the organization are among the obstacles facing the private sector investors in the construction projects of the city of Tehran. Mirsadeghi (2017) in identifying the effective factors in attracting financial sponsors of sports in Kurdistan province showed that internal organizational factors are important as contextual conditions.

In the contextual factors section, two factors were identified including factors related to media and culture. Since the 1960s, economy and sports began to interact with each other with the help of the spread of media, and the process of commercialization of sports took a new form (Zohrabi et al., 2013). Kristiansen et al. (2019) compared the media coverage of the Youth Olympic Games and the Olympic Games for female athletes, and the findings confirmed the role of media coverage in creating a positive relationship between teams and sponsors. The information system as an internal factor and the media as a small external factor were identified in Bagheri et al.'s research (2019) as effective factors in attracting financial sponsors in championship sports; On the other hand, the results of Movakel and Alidoust Ghafarakhi's study (2020) showed that media and audience factors, as well as social and cultural factors, are effective factors in attracting financial sponsors from Iranian athletics. Also, Rajaei and Khorasani research results (2015) showed that from the point of view of the managers of private media companies and sports spectators, they consider two very important factors in attracting private sectors to invest in championship sports.

Government factors were identified as one of the interfering factors in attracting investment in sports projects. In the section of government factors of management of private-public partnership, Economic factors related to governments and factors related to public administration are identified categories. In Emami et al.'s research (2020), government management was mentioned as one of the intervening factors in investing in sports; Also, Mirsadeghi (2017) in identifying effective factors in attracting financial sponsors of sports in Kurdistan province showed that government management is considered as an intervening condition. The amount of investment in various sports fields, the amount of money circulating in the country's sports industry, the transparency of financial information in the field of sports and the low level of financial corruption in the construction projects of sports facilities are the codes related to this sector. Today, in the world's sports economy, there is more than 600 billion euros in money circulation, and for example, in football alone, money circulation amounts to 33 to 35 billion euros. You should ask how much is Iran's share in the global sports economy?! Undoubtedly, we will not have a share; because our sport has not progressed towards monetization, employment, etc., because the country's political officials and country executives do not believe in this part of the economy (sports) and deprive themselves and the great society of Iran from such sources of income and sources of job creation (Emami et al., 2020), and this can have a negative effect on the level of investors' willingness in sports projects, but in the case of correct, principled and purposeful measures in this area, the inclinations tend to be positive.

In the present study, three major strategies were presented, including the promotion of investment culture, legal framework, and the development and promotion of scientific management. In the promotion of the investment culture in sports projects, advertising strategies as well as modeling and awareness-raising are considered. In both sectors, the role of the media is undeniable, and it is necessary to use the potential of modern and traditional media to achieve the expected results. On the other hand, policy making and passing protective laws will help to create investment motivation in a clear and transparent manner; In this regard, the results of Zartoshtian's research (2021) in the design of an effective strategic model in attracting and expanding sponsors in general sports and championships showed that improving the rules for sponsors is considered as a strategy. Improving the knowledge of managers and employees in the field of attracting investors in sports projects and scientific management in this field can attract maximum investors in a specialized and effective way with maximum achievable benefits. In this regard, research and development factors affecting the attraction of financial sponsors in the country's wrestling were mentioned as an effective factor in the research of Rashidalamir et al. (2017). The results of Kurakova's research (2018) showed that Internet marketing can be presented as an effective and innovative mechanism to attract investment in construction projects in Russia, which requires the expertise and up-to-date knowledge of managers in this field.

The consequences of attracting investment in sports projects are significant in the three areas of health promotion at different dimensions, sports promotion at different levels, and the growth of the sports industry. Investing in sports projects leads to the quantitative and qualitative improvement of sports facilities, which ultimately can lead to sports participation of different groups, a further step towards improving health in different dimensions for different groups. These facilities can be available in two sectors of professional and recreational sports, which can ultimately bring the development of sports in both sectors. Based on the results of Salimi et al. (2021), the lack of sports spaces was introduced as one of the contextual categories of preventing women from recreational sports. Also, having well-equipped sports facilities and venues can increase the possibility of hosting international events and thus obtaining financial and non-financial benefits. Modern sports facilities are considered effective motivators for attending sports events as spectators, whose financial benefits are significant. The opportunities to gain financial benefits from modern and accessible sports facilities make investing in sports projects a valuable and low-risk investment opportunity that makes the market more competitive.

Conclusion

The results of the present research as a scientific framework can be considered as a guide based on the opinion of experts for the development of attracting investors in sports projects. As the results show, various sectors, including the public sector, private sector, charities, and the media can play an effective role in this area, which requires targeted cooperation based on specialized knowledge and in a suitable legal framework. Therefore, it is necessary to create synergy in this area. If all effective factors perform their role in the system optimally, eventually we will see great results such as health promotion, growth of sports and growth of the sports industry as a result of increased investment in sports projects. It is suggested to the researchers to investigate the investment in sports projects at different levels in the future researches, whether large projects or small projects, so that the results of the research can guide the executive managers in this field in different project.

Acknowledgments

This research is extracted from a project conducted under a contract between the Sport and Youth General Office of Isfahan Province as the employer and the University of Isfahan as the executor. We sincerely thank all the organizations and individuals who assisted and supported us in carrying out this study.

Conflicts of Interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.