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This study aims to explore the efficacy of using sport-specific specialist multiple delivery partners (MDPs) contracted by the World Masters Games 2017 Limited (WMG2017) local organising committee (LOC) to deliver their event’s sport programme. Using the experiences and perspectives gained through this novel MDP approach, the objective of this research is to ascertain the benefits and challenges when using MDPs, propose recommendations and develop an MDP model to guide future event organisers who wish to engage MDPs.

This exploratory qualitative case study collected data via 23 semi-structured interviews, which were thematically analysed using NVivo11. Participants were purposively recruited from the 28 MDPs contracted by the LOC to deliver the Games sport programme and from the 7 LOC Executive Team members.

Interviewees highly commend the use of MDPs and provide constructive but minimal advice for future event organisers. Findings indicate that contracting external specialists with the required capability is vital for success, as are open communication, tools and practices to aid consistency and flexibility to allow the MDPs to utilise their expertise.

There is little specific literature on using MDPs by any type or size of event. As this mode of delivery could become more popular, certainly in second-tier events like the WMG, this study provides recommendations for future event organisers through findings on the efficacy, benefits and challenges of employing MDPs to deliver an event.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how multiple partners could be managed to ensure the successful delivery of the World Masters Games (WMG), 2017. Specifically, its objectives are to understand how event organisers manage relationships with multiple delivery partners, what tools and practices are used to ensure consistency and what risks and benefits exist.

An applied, qualitative, exploratory method used thematic analysis to obtain findings from seven semi-structured interviews of senior managers involved in five international sports event held in Australasia.

Findings were interpreted into nine themes related to event delivery partnerships such as reducing inconsistency, localising delivery through specialists, managing stakeholder relationships, managing workloads and taking an athlete-centred approach. Recommendations include establishing relationship strategies for each partner, determining the degree of control over delivery, crafting contracts appropriate to each partner, creating a suite of tools to aid consistency, recruiting an executive team with Games/mass participation event experience and a senior management team with sport or venue operations experience, centralising knowledge and planning, up-skilling partners as necessary and fully engaging local communities.

The sample was restricted to five event organisations and only a small number of participants per organisation were interviewed. This study collected the experiences and opinions from the event organisers’ point of view and did not capture the same from delivery partners.

The literature revealed little specifically on operational delivery methods adopted by sport events; therefore this study adds to the conversation on sport event delivery models from an outsourcing perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate athlete selection procedures implemented by 25 provincial and national level coaches in New Zealand. One of the main focuses of the study was the degree to which workplace human resource management (HRM) selection practices were utilised, or could have been beneficial, for athlete selection. As many selection controversies have been caused by unclear or unspecified selection procedures, the study focused on discovering what processes coaches utilised when selecting athletes and, importantly, to what degree these processes were communicated to athletes.

The data were collected via semi‐structured interviews and interpreted using thematic analysis which enabled the extraction of the major recurring themes.

Although the majority of coaches supported the use of HRM selection processes, only six reported implementing HRM type practices. Overall, the study found that coaches on the whole did not fully utilise HRM selection practices. Furthermore, although there tended to be some degree of communication of these processes to athletes, this was not always done in a clear and precise way.

Core HRM practices, procedures, and terminology are seemingly rarely utilised in the athlete selection processes of amateur team sport. It is argued that future research should focus on determining how best to implement workplace HRM selection processes for team athlete selection.

Somewhat surprisingly, very little past research has investigated current athlete selection processes in relation to workplace HRM selection practices. The present research increases the understanding of current team athlete selection and provides discussion of the results in relation to HRM selection best practice.