ABSTRACT
As the above case highlights, the organizing committee needs different individuals, groups, and organizations, broadly termed stakeholders, to assist in and/or undertake certain responsibilities regarding the planning and/or implementation of the event. Being able to co-opt (i.e. bring on board) certain, sometimes “troublesome”, stakeholders allows the organizing committee to potentially reduce the risk of a negative impact on its image. All organizations need to deal with a variety of stakeholders; this is the purview of stakeholder management and theory, which we will discuss below. As well, sports event managers have to be cognizant of key protocol issues when they deal with particular stakeholders, such as sport and state/government dignitaries, VIPs, IPPs (international protected persons), and even royalty. These protocol issues can be as simple as knowing how to address a king or prime minister, but also often involve particularly high levels of security and coordination. Yet there is a lack of research regarding protocol. We will examine what does exist in the literature and then examine other stakeholder and protocol issues in the practitioner’s section.
