Causal, Contextual, and Intervening Factors Affecting the Crisis in Iranian Stadiums

INTRODUCTION: Nowadays, government officials seek ways to monitor, control, and manage events and crises due to the concerns of the general public and social media as informative tools. Regarding this, the present study aims to identify and analyze the factors affecting the crisis incidence in Iranian stadiums. METHODS: The present interpretive qualitative research was performed based on a grounded theory method and latent content analysis technique. The data were collected by the implementation of in-depth interviews with 19 people consisting of the Ministry of Sports and Youth experts and executives, sports management professors, and crisis management specialists. The participants were selected using non-probability and snowball sampling techniques. The interviews were continued until reaching theoretical saturation regarding the research questions and objectives. The gathered data, in form of audio recording and text, were analyzed by MAXQDA software (version 18). FINDINGS: The interview data were analyzed based on open and process coding. Afterward, the researcher categorized the identified factors into causal, contextual, and intervening conditions. In this regard, the causal factors consisted of the following items: 1) nature of crisis, 2) technical and specialized factors, 3) infrastructure and equipment, and 4) environmental and equipment hazards. With respect to the contextual factors, they included: 1) human resources, 2) nature of sporting events, 3) security factors, 4) vandalism, 5) welfare facilities, and 5) management factors. Finally, the intervening factors were found to entail: 1) stadium atmosphere, 2) political and social crises, and 3) information and communications technology. CONCLUSION: According to the obtained results, the officials are recommended to consider the paradigmatic model of factors leading to crisis management in stadiums in the crisis management programs adopted for sports venues, especially large stadiums. The consideration of the factors constituting the given model can lead to the improvement of crisis management in the countrychr('39')s sports venues.