Sports Businesses During the Economic Crisis and Pandemic

Micro business concept; These are businesses with less than 10 employees (1-9) and whose net sales revenue or monetary balance does not exceed three million TL during the year. The subject of the research is the equivalent of the "micro and small enterprises" phenomenon in the sports industry. It is seen that sports enterprises operate in large, medium, small land micro scale in the private sector. This study aims to understand the effects of the economic crisis and pandemic process on sports businesses with fewer than 50 employees. The research was designed according to the qualitative method, with the interpretive/interpretive paradigm. "Semi-structured in-depth interview" technique was used as a data collection tool, and interviews were conducted with managers and representatives of sports enterprises. Care was taken to ensure that the participants in the sample had worked in the relevant business for at least one year. Number of participants interviewed according to purposeful sampling from sports halls in Bağcılar, Bahçelievler, Kağıthane, Beşiktaş, Üsküdar, Kadıköy, Sarıyer, Şişli, Beyoğlu, Eyüpsultan, Avcılar, Beylikdüzü, Kartal, Ataşehir, Ümraniye, Gaziosmanpaşa, Küçükçekmece, Bakırköy and Fatih districts in Istanbul. It is 30. After the audio recordings were transcribed into text, 3 themes were determined through content analysis: 1. Effects of the Economic Crisis on Micro and Small-Scale Sports Businesses, 2. Effects of the crisis on customer base, 3. Pandemic Experiences of Sports Businesses. It is a striking fact that economic crises negatively affect sports businesses in many ways. Potential customers' decreased interest in sports services in a crisis environment; rent, withholding tax etc. Factors such as the increase in payment-related problems come to the fore. The increase in prices, the decrease in the number of customers and marketing strategies for the relevant conjuncture are other notable issues. It has been observed that problems such as loss of income due to the closure of the halls during the pandemic period, continuation of payments during this period and insufficient government support have highlighted various marketing strategies in sports businesses.