Les clusters : un enjeu pour le développement du sport et de ses organisations?

The increasing part of the Sport in our society raises obviously the question of how to optimize its organization. Indeed, in sport organizations, the stakes are multiple. Moreover, involved actors and territorialization are heterogeneous. Accordingly, thinking about how to efficiently institutionalize these synergies seems necessary. At this aim, the advanced cluster model of Porter showed that clustering the organizations on a same area increases their competitiveness. To analyze the best conditions in which a successful cluster emergences, we choose to investigate the concept of proximity. This was done through the notions of territorialization and coordination which are particularly present in the Sport Business irrespective to the domain (i.e. public, private, professional or un-professional sport domain). This paper suggests that if geographical and organized proximities are important to allow proper functioning of a cluster, they can also be pejorative if they induce some phenomena such a spatial lock-in, too diverse goals or a too large organizational inertia. The best way to guaranty the emergence of a successful cluster remains the presence, both, of effective governance and of an active participation of all stakeholders.