Managerial and Economic Issues in Amateur Sports: The Sample of Athletics

Abstract

The concept of amateur has been replaced by the definition of “secret professional" today, even though there isn’t any goal of an award or success; but, in any case, it falls behind professional sports branches in terms of investment and support. However, as a result of the effort spent and investments, amateur sport branches’ own facilities were built, federations were established and people were encouraged to join this branches by organizing competitions alongside of the Olympics. The preference of these branches by the future generations are heavily dependent to the sportive success, however, managerial success also has a huge impact on this preference. Considering the investments made in amateur and professional branches, the difference between football and other sport branches can easily be seen. In this context, it is aimed to identify the problems and imperfections experienced by trainers, managers and athletes in the field of athletics-an amateur sport branch, and the managerial and economic problems which emerge in the sports branches they are involved in. The sample group was composed of 10 people, 4 athletes, 4 trainers and 2 managers in the field of athletics. In the study, the semi-structured in-depth interview technique, which is a research technique specific to the qualitative method was used. The interviews were recorded on the voice recorder and transferred to the "Word" text. The relevant findings were subjected to content analysis and classified into 4 different themes that reflect the main issues: 1. financial support issue, 2. facility and equipment adequacy, 3. infrastructure and trainer issues, 4.health and revenue assurance. In the research, it was determined that some issues such as financial support, facilities, and the facilities number not meeting the needs, infrastructure system to support sports, training, and communication of trainers, health and income assurance were insufficient for trainers and athletes.