Introduction: Today, the development of sports tourism in all national, regional and international arenas has received the attention of government and private planners. The aim of the current research was to investigate the sociological role of the management structure in the development of sports tourism in the 22 districts of Tehran city.
Material and methods: The current study was a mixed method study. In the qualitative stage, direct observation and interviews with the elites were conducted, and in the quantitative stage, information was collected in a prospective and systematic stratified manner. The snowball technique was used for sampling and the number of participants in the qualitative stage was 17 managers and in the quantitative stage 370 people.
Results: The variable analysis of management structure in the standard estimation mode showed that the factor loadings of all indicators are higher than 0.05, which indicates convergent validity. The result of dividing the chi-square index by the degree of freedom is equal to 3.088, which is acceptable compared to the critical value of 5 indices.
Conclusion: It shows that the effective factors on the development of sports tourism that are related to the management structure are: (1) using the capabilities of the local manpower for the development of this industry (2) establishing continuous communication with neighboring cities and countries to conduct events , competitions and... ). (3) Attracting facilities and credits for development (4) Taking advantage of the opportunity of tourists' trust by developing attraction and marketing strategies (5) Holding high-profile and attractive sports events (6) Taking advantage of fun and attractive resources and places by holding various competitions. 7) Encouraging the private sector to invest in this sector and not confronting the government with it through development plans (8) trying to create coordination between different institutions involved in tourism (9) using media support for sports tourism.