Strategic ambitions and operational realities: a strategic sensemaking approach to community sport and the 2026 FIFA World Cup

Community sport organizations (CSOs) occupy a critical yet elusive role in major sport event leveraging. Existing research has focused primarily on post-event outcomes or reactive organizational responses, offering limited insight into how CSOs interpret potential leveraging opportunities before an event occurs. Applying strategic sensemaking to the planning phase extends event leveraging research by providing a proactive perspective on leveraging and demonstrating how leaders’ interpretations of uncertain environmental conditions shape organizational leveraging intentions. This study examined how leaders of soccer CSOs made sense of the 2026 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup (FWC) as a leveraging opportunity, focusing on the environmental conditions shaping their interpretations, how they interpreted the event, and what they intended to do about it. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2025 with 15 CSO leaders in Ontario and British Columbia, Canada. Findings demonstrate that environmental conditions (ticket access, media coverage, proximity to host cities, governing body communication, event timing) and organizational capacity shaped three interpretive frames: the FWC as a participation opportunity centered on membership growth, a community opportunity centered on shared celebration, and a financial opportunity centered on revenue generation. Leaders also described a temporal tension between planning too early and too late, and many anticipated some participation gains occurring automatically despite recognizing that sustained benefits required deliberate action. Corresponding tactics included try-it events, watch parties, themed programming, and fundraising. Findings highlight the absence of meaningful governing body sensegiving and the need for multilevel support aligned with CSOs’ operational realities.