Emotions and the sustainability of community sport organizations

Abstract

Even when literature about CSOs (community sport organizations) has dealt with some aspects related to its sustainability, little research has been undertaken on the links between participants’ emotions and CSOs sustainability. CSOs usually depends on volunteering, so specific issues about its sustainability should be considered. This study follows a qualitative methodology to draw data from interviews with tennis participants (seven players and two coaches) of three CSO located in Madrid, Spain. Anxiety about the match outcome, happiness and joy at wins, and sadness in some defeats appear as their dominant emotions. These results are connected with those obtained by the literature on PSOs’ (professional sport organizations) fandom. The proximity of the two sets of emotions points to the relevance of emotionally constructed communities of members for CSOs’ sustainability, as it has shown for PSOs.