Meeting the Two Imposters of Triumph and Disaster: Senior Management Perspectives on the COVID‐19 Pandemic’s Impact on Global Tennis Tournaments.

Abstract

This study uncovers insider perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact from four senior management and organizers of two global tennis tournaments. The events are Wimbledon and the Queen’s Club Championship; both annually recurring tennis tournaments played on grass in London, UK. Using an “elite event interviewing” approach, data were collected through semistructured interviews. The interviews were thematically analyzed, and four primary themes emerged from the data. These themes were (i) responding to the initial impact of the global pandemic on tennis events, (ii) planning and preparedness for the ongoing issues facing event organizers, (iii) pandemic implications for other tennis event stakeholders including sponsors, employees and suppliers, and (iv) prevention and learning from the pandemic to help ensure the prosperity of future events. Managerial implications and areas of future research are highlighted, followed by holistic recommendations for event organizers to help better plan, prepare, and prevent future crises and disasters.