Designing a Community Sports Planning Model in Iranian Metropolises Using Grounded Theory

Health and well-being have become significant dimensions of urban sustainability, particularly in countries with rapid urbanization. Community sports affect the health and vitality of society's population. Although planning for city management has existed throughout history, an integrated structure of the role of sports in urban planning to improve the quality of life and health of citizens has not yet been defined. This study aims to present a community sports planning program in metropolitan areas of Iran. The research was qualitative, and was done using the grounded theory approach based on the systematic approach of Strauss and Corbin (1998). 13 participants were purposefully selected from experts in the field of public sports development for interviewing. The final model was based on 6 categories and 36 factors. Gender and infrastructure were the most contextual factors. Cultural and underlying factors were given more attention than casual factors. Among intervening factors, media, monitoring, and evaluation got more emphasis. The categories of infrastructure and planning were mostly emphasized in the strategies section. While, in the model implementation consequences section, cultural and social consequences were mostly emphasized. Through a participatory approach to sports development, metropolitan municipalities can better understand the needs of their citizens. A bottom-up or company-centric approach allows organizers to reconstruct sports presentation models based on each metropolis.