Objective: As a key driver of economic and social development, sports entrepreneurship plays a significant role in creating employment opportunities, expanding sports services, and effectively utilizing local capacities. This present study specifically explored the distinct lived experiences of sports entrepreneurs operating in Khuzestan Province.



Methodology: This research employed a qualitative approach based on Colaizzi's descriptive phenomenological method. Twelve sports entrepreneurs from Khuzestan were purposively sampled until data saturation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and meticulously analyzed using Colaizzi's seven-step procedure.



Findings: The comprehensive analysis extracted 23 sub-themes, 13 main themes, and 5 overarching themes: constructing entrepreneurial identity in response to perceived gaps; confronting multilayered systemic barriers; leveraging local capacities and networking; the dual experience of indigenous opportunities and constraints; and entrepreneurship as an identity-forming, meaning-centered experience. Entry into the entrepreneurial pathway was primarily shaped by perceiving unmet needs within the sports sector, supported by personal, economic, social, and identity-related motivations. Throughout their journey, entrepreneurs encountered institutional-structural, socio-cultural, and professional-organizational barriers, yet they drew upon human, natural, and technological resources, along with social networks, to sustain their activities. Moreover, Khuzestan's socio-cultural, economic, and environmental characteristics simultaneously presented both opportunities and significant constraints, compelling continuous adaptation. Crucially, entrepreneurship was not merely an economic endeavor; it represented a profound identity-forming process that redefined professional and personal identities, fostered belonging, and generated meanings transcending profit.



Conclusion: Accordingly, the lived experience of sports entrepreneurs in Khuzestan is ultimately a contextualized, dynamic, and multidimensional phenomenon emerging from the complex interaction of individual motivations, structural constraints, local capacities, and personal meaning-making