The area of sport event tourism has been growing over the last years, which led to an increasing amount of research that has analysed both the economic and social impacts of sport events. Whereas a substantial amount of ex post assessment frameworks for quantitative event evaluation is available, there is growing demand for process orientated ex ante frameworks that guide the strategic study of social utility of events.To address this issue this paper presents a process framework suitable for theoretical and practical research in the area of inter-community sport events. It combines the areas of community participation, intergroup relations, social identity and event impacts in a process towards generating social capital within and among communities. The ex ante process framework is designed to support the strategic investigation of inter-community sport events and their contribution to social cohesion, socio-cultural development, and the enhancement of communities’ quality of life.