Introduction: This study aims to investigate the challenges stemming from the aspiration to migrate among Iran's sports workforce. Method: A mixed-methods approach was employed, utilizing a systematic grounded theory design (Glaser’s approach) for the qualitative phase and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for ranking factors in the quantitative phase. In the qualitative phase, 27 participants, including sports management professors, coaches, athletes, students, and sports science graduates with an aspiration to migrate, were purposively selected, and data saturation was achieved through snowball sampling. Qualitative data were collected via semi-structured interviews and analyzed through open, selective, and theoretical coding. To ensure research validity, a combination of criteria was applied, including prolonged researcher engagement, persistent observation, peer review, progressive subjectivity, participant involvement, and the use of multiple data sources. Reliability was assessed using inter-coder agreement and researcher coding consistency over a specified time interval. In the quantitative phase, a panel of 10 sports management experts participated, and data were analyzed using Expert Choice software. Results: The findings revealed that incomplete employment, demand for informal employment, job quality, job mismatch, declining job opportunities, job attitudes, mental migration, workforce burnout, investment stagnation, and virtual migration are among the effects of migration aspiration on Iran's sports workforce. The prioritization results, based on expert opinions, indicated that incomplete employment, job quality, and job mismatch ranked highest, respectively. Consequently, addressing the future of Iran's sports labor market requires policies and actions that foster hope for a better life within national borders for the sports workforce. Conclusion: The issue of migration extends beyond its realization; it encompasses the human resources harboring migration thoughts and aspirations. Migration in the sports sector, like other fields in Iran and globally, is on the rise, making the attraction, retention, and utilization of sports-related human capital increasingly complex and necessitating transformative strategies
