Evolution and Issue Patterns for Major-Sport-Event Organizing Committees and Their Stakeholders

The purpose of this article is to develop a framework of how organizing committees operationally evolve and the types of issues with which they and their stakeholders must deal. Based on a combination of stakeholder theory and issues management, a case study of the 1999 Pan American Games held in Winnipeg, Canada, was built using archival material and interviews. Three major organizing-committee operational modes emerged: planning, implementation, and wrap-up. Issue categories faced by the organizing committee and its stakeholders included politics, visibility, financial, organizing, relationships, operations, sport, infrastructure, human resources, media, interdependence, participation, and legacy. Issue-category prominence depended on the operational mode and organizing-committee member hierarchical level, such that issues became less strategic and broad as one moved through operational modes or down the hierarchy. Issue categories also differed within stakeholder groups, whereas stakeholder interests (material, political, affiliative, informational, and symbolic) differed between stakeholder groups.