The Challenges of Separation of an Elite Sports Team – A Case-Study Analysis of a Swiss Sport Club

Abstract

Sports clubs with (semi-)professional teams aiming for sporting success often separate their elite section during a professionalisation process (Adam & Hoveman, 2017). This change in organisational structure is made to mitigate the entrepreneurial risk arising from substantial financial commitments. While this may reduce the main club's financial danger, it also presents challenges associated with the separation, which can, in the worst case, lead to the insolvency of the elite team. Such unintended consequences of professionalisation are largely overlooked in research (Ruoranen et al., 2023), which is why the following research questions arise: What are the potential challenges when separating the elite team? What are the possible consequences when the separation model is no longer viable?

The Organisational Life Cycle Approach (Bonn & Pettigrew, 2009) with its stages Start-Up, Growth, Maintenance and Decline is used as a theoretical framework, together with a multi-level processual approach for data collection and analysis according to Lang et al. (2020).

This study is part of an international project on professionalisation processes of sports clubs. A single-case study (Yin, 2018) is applied to facilitate a holistic and long-term analysis of the organisational change process of a Swiss team sport club, which separated its elite team into its own organisation and liquidated it years later. The data collection included three sources: documents, expert interviews with decision-makers and focus groups with club members. The data were analysed using deductive and inductive coding (Miles et al., 2020) and visual mapping strategies (Langley, 1999; Parmentier-Cajaiba & Cajaiba-Santana, 2020).

The following challenges were observed after separating the elite team: On the external level, the development of the sport with a new competitor in the league, as well as the introduction of a new discipline, led to less sporting success and a decline in interest from spectators, the media, and sponsors. The local community’s identification decreased due to the clubs' predominantly foreign players. On the internal level, firstly, a loss of identification between the main club and the elite team caused difficulties in recruiting volunteers for organising the elite team's matches. Secondly, focusing strategically only on short-term success of the elite team led to overspending. Thirdly, although legally separated, the two organisations used the same resources, resulting in unclear decision-making processes. Finally, the increased regulations of the chosen legal form created more bureaucratic work and disadvantages. Regarding the consequences, the elite team organisation was liquidated following insolvency. The main club's new board decided to reintegrate the elite team into the main club and voluntarily relegate to the 2nd league to gain better control. Financially, this involved repaying debts and increasing membership fees. Further, the club shifted its focus to talent development. Following the reintegration, the club’s board successfully established a positive image and fostered greater identification within the club.

In conclusion, sports clubs with ambitions in elite sports that decide to professionalise, for example, by separating their elite section, should be aware of possible challenges and proactively act on transparency, identification and financial reserves.

References

Adam, S., & Hovemann, G. (2017). Organisations- und Rechtsformwandel in professionellen deutschen Sportvereinen [Changes in organisational and legal status of German professional sports clubs]. In L. Thieme (Ed.), Der Sportverein — Versuch einer Bilanz [The sports association — An attempt to draw a balance] (pp. 415–440). Hofmann.

Bonn, I., & Pettigrew, A. (2009). Towards a dynamic theory of boards: An organisational life cycle approach. Journal of Management & Organization, 15(1), 2–16. https://doi.org/10.5172/jmo.837.15.1.2

Lang, G., Klenk, C., Schlesinger, T., Ruoranen, K., Bayle, E., Clausen, J., Giauque, D., & Nagel, S. (2020). Challenges and opportunities arising from self-regulated professionalisation processes: an analysis of a Swiss national sport federation. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 12(3), 387–404. https://doi.org/10.1080/19406940.2020.1775676

Langley, A. (1999). Strategies for theorizing from process data. Academy of Management Review, 24(4), 691–710. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1999.2553248

Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2020). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (4th edition, International student edition). SAGE.

Parmentier-Cajaiba, A., & Cajaiba-Santana, G. (2020). Visual maps for process research: Displaying the invisible. M@n@gement, 23(4), 65–79. https://doi.org/10.37725/mgmt.v23i4.4501

Ruoranen, K., Nagel, S., Lang, G., Klenk, C., Bayle, E., Clausen, J., Giauque, D., & Schlesinger, T. (2023). The dark side of professionalisation in national sport federations: a case study of the Swiss Floorball Federation. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 23(5), 442–464.

Yin, R. K. (2018). Case study research and application: Design and methods (6th ed.). SAGE.