‘Sport cities’ are one of the latest manifestations of global sport. A broad and widely used term, it has typically been applied to rationalize the costs of new sporting infrastructure, to extend the economic benefit from major sport event legacies, or as a city branding venture. There is currently little research that critically interprets the social aspects of sport cities, or the social benefits in sport city planning. In this paper we propose a conceptual framework that integrates concepts from the fields of urban planning and sport. The social benefits of sport cities framework provides a research structure through which to explore whether, and to what extent, social benefits have been considered in sport city planning. By highlighting this little researched area and by introducing a conceptual framework that combines two inter-related fields, this paper may help academics and practitioners better understand the social contribution of sport cities.