The present study aims to elucidate the effects of migration fever on Iran's sports labor force. This research was conducted using a mixed-methods approach, employing the systematic grounded theory design (Glaserian approach) in the qualitative phase, and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in the quantitative phase to rank the identified factors. In the qualitative phase, 27 participants—including sports management professors, sports coaches, athletes, sports science students, and graduates—who expressed a desire to migrate were purposefully selected. Data saturation was achieved through snowball sampling. Qualitative data were collected via semi-structured interviews and analyzed using three stages of coding: open, selective, and theoretical coding. To ensure the trustworthiness of the qualitative findings, the researchers employed prolonged engagement, persistent observation, peer debriefing, progressive reflexivity, member checking, and triangulation of multiple data sources. Reliability was further assessed through inter-coder agreement and intra-coder reliability checks at specified time intervals. In the quantitative phase, 10 sports management experts participated in the expert panel, and the data were analyzed using Expert Choice software. The findings revealed that the prominent effects of migration fever on Iran's sports workforce include: prevalence of underemployment, demand for informal employment, job quality deterioration, occupational mismatch, decline in job-finding opportunities, negative job attitudes, mental migration, workforce burnout, investment stagnation, and virtual migration. Results from the experts' prioritization using AHP indicated that prevalence of underemployment, job quality, and occupational mismatch respectively held the highest ranks.