Factors That Led to the Drowning of a World Championship Organizing Committee: A Stakeholder Approach

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this paper was to explore the organizational and stakeholder-related factors which led to the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) cancelling its contract with the 2005 Montreal Aquatics World Championships Organizing Committee, thereby pulling the event from Montreal, Canada. The case study, based on stakeholder theory, was built through bid/organizing committee member and stakeholder interviews and archival material. A lack of formal financial commitments, power congruence between partners and the pervasive politics, communication, proper human resource management procedures, and proper due diligence emerged as the critical combination of factors which resulted in the unfortunate outcome. This study contributes significantly to the literature and to entities/stakeholders engaged in events (governments, sport federations, etc.) by (1) providing a new approach to studying failed organizing committees; and (2) highlighting issues that are critical to managing (and keeping) sporting events, thus avoiding failure. A model of organizing committee failure is also proposed.