Professional sport

The present study aims to investigate the aspects of sport structure in Iran. Literature review, Delphi method, and a researcher developed questionnaire were used to fulfill the research objective. At the first stage, 10 faculty members of sport management participated in a Delphi study. At the second stage, 302 researcher developed questionnaires distributed among staff and operational managers in the Ministry of Youth and Sports, managers of executive board in the National Olympic Committee, heads of federations, experts in NOC and the faculty members. The results showed that in terms of the importance, sports for all, training sport, championship sport and professional sport are in the priority of sport structure in Iran, and in designing the Fifth Five-Year Development Plan of Iran, none of the four aspects of sport structures have properly been taken into account.

The purpose of the current research was to investigate and prioritize the promoting and inhibiting factors in the development of women's professional basketball in Khorasan Razavi, Iran. This is a mixed study conducted with an exploratory-analytical approach. In the qualitative part of the research, the interviewees included sports management professors, prominent basketball pioneers in Khorasan Razavi province, professional female basketball players, as well basketball boards’ managers and representatives. In the quantitative phase, the statistical population included professional female basketball players, coaches, and basketball pioneers in Khorasan Razavi. In general, 8 interviews and 134 questionnaires were collected in the research process. The qualitative data was analyzed through the content analysis method while the quantitative data analysis process was completed by using SPSS software (v. 22) and exploratory factor analysis, as well as Friedman's ranking tests. The findings of the research revealed that out of 48 items obtained as effective factors on the development of women's professional basketball in Khorasan Razavi province, 25 items were considered as promoting factors and 23 items were found as inhibiting factors. Also, based on the results of the exploratory factor analysis test, 6 promoting factors ("socio-cultural factors", "technical level", "basic factors", "expert human resources", "competition and event", and "scientific indicators") and 5 inhibiting factors ("financial issues", "motivational supportive factors", "facilities factor", "club ownership" and "management perspective”) were identified. "