Rich and his contributing authors provide a political and economic analysis of sports stadium construction in the United States-the impact it has on the sports industry itself and on the host communities in which stadiums and arenas are built. The book brings together the research of leading academic analysts of sports in American society and gives a candid assessment of the claims and benefits the sports industry makes, in its continuing promotion of new stadium construction. Focusing on Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, New Orleans, Toledo and Phoenix, the authors examine the topic from the perspectives of history, politics, and economics-and in doing so they raise several questions about taxpayer and community protection issues. Specifically, what do communities really get out of these facilities?
They point out that even as new and more expensive facilities are being built, Congress has not provided taxpayers and cities any real protection from the risks involved in stadium investment. Rich and his contributors examine how the pro-stadium coalitions mobilize and explain why stadium supporters manage to win most of their construction initiatives. In doing so, the contributors challenge the conventional wisdom that stadiums stimulate economic development and provide good jobs. On the contrary, they have not lived up to the promises owners made to their host communities. Neither have they generated high paying jobs nor have they met their operating costs. The book concludes with ways in which sports franchise owners can be held more accountable to their communities. The result is a powerful, well reasoned, skeptical but fair assessment of a growing phenomenon, and an important resource for professionals and academics in all fields of public policy administration and urban development and management.
Show moreRich and his contributing authors provide a political and economic analysis of sports stadium construction in the United States-the impact it has on the sports industry itself and on the host communities in which stadiums and arenas are built. The book brings together the research of leading academic analysts of sports in American society and gives a candid assessment of the claims and benefits the sports industry makes, in its continuing promotion of new stadium construction. Focusing on Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, New Orleans, Toledo and Phoenix, the authors examine the topic from the perspectives of history, politics, and economics-and in doing so they raise several questions about taxpayer and community protection issues. Specifically, what do communities really get out of these facilities?
They point out that even as new and more expensive facilities are being built, Congress has not provided taxpayers and cities any real protection from the risks involved in stadium investment. Rich and his contributors examine how the pro-stadium coalitions mobilize and explain why stadium supporters manage to win most of their construction initiatives. In doing so, the contributors challenge the conventional wisdom that stadiums stimulate economic development and provide good jobs. On the contrary, they have not lived up to the promises owners made to their host communities. Neither have they generated high paying jobs nor have they met their operating costs. The book concludes with ways in which sports franchise owners can be held more accountable to their communities. The result is a powerful, well reasoned, skeptical but fair assessment of a growing phenomenon, and an important resource for professionals and academics in all fields of public policy administration and urban development and management.
Show moreA rigorously objective study of the impact that sports stadiums have on their host cities, emphasizing their benefits but also their liabilities as supposed engines of economic development.
Introduction: Professional Sports, Economic Development and
Public Policy
History of Stadium Politics
Historical Perspective on Sports and Public Policy by Steven
Reiss
Sports and Economics
The Economics of Stadiums, Teams and Cities by Andy Zimbalist
Home Field Advantage? Does the Metropolis of Neighborhood Derive
Benefits from a Professional Sports Stadium? by Robert Baade
Cities and Sports Franchise
The Politics of Stadium Development in Phoenix, Arizona by Richard
Temple Middleton
The Politics of Planning and Developing New Sports Facilities: The
Case of Zephyrs Park and the New Orleans Arena by Robert K. Whelan
and Alma H. Young
Stadiums as Solution Sets: Baseball, Football and Downtown Detroit
by Lynn Bachelor
Minor League Baseball: Risks and Potential Benefits for Communities
Large and Small by Arthur T. Johnson
Building Ballparks: The Policy Dimensions of Keeping the Game in
Town by Edward Sidlow and Beth M. Henschen
Major League Baseball and American Cities: A Strategy for Playing
the Stadium Game by Neil J. Sullivan
Media, Theatrics and Political Actors
Exploring Politics on the Sports Page by Jose Marichal and Robyn
Turner
Who Lost the Boston Megaplex and Almost the New England Patriots?
by Wilbur C. Rich
Conclusions
Index
WILBUR C. RICH is Professor of Political Science, Wellesley College and has taught at Columbia University and Wayne State University. Author of several articles and reports on the problems of local government administration, Dr. Rich's books include the The Politics of Urban Personnel Policy, Coleman Young and Detroit Politics, and Black Mayors and School Politics. A fourth book, The Politics of Minority Coalitions, was published by Praeger Publishers, another imprint of the Greenwood Publishing Group, in 1996.
?A strength of the book is that is is written for a wide,
nonacademic audience.?-Business History Review
?A wealth of significant literature is reviewed--with references at
the conclusion of each essay. These essays thoroughly catalog
relationship between personalities, cities, issues, and histories
in these literature reviews.?-Public Administration Review
?It provides a very useful and readable overview of a particular
strand of sports economics. It skillfully and in great detail
brings us to the present-day situation where public money is used
in large quantities to subsidise private businesses which, the
author argues, contributes little to the local or city economy. The
importance of this book is that it is grounded in a far longer
history of the interrelationship of sport and local and national
government....this is an illuminating set of readings whicch might
begin to inform the thinking about the importance (or otherwise) of
sport elsewhere in the world.?-Urban Studies
?Those interested in this important contemporary topic spanning
economics, politics, urban studies, and public policy, spending a
couple hours with The Economics and Politics of Sports Facilities
would pass an economist's benefit-cost test.?-Science &
Technology
"A strength of the book is that is is written for a wide,
nonacademic audience."-Business History Review
"A wealth of significant literature is reviewed--with references at
the conclusion of each essay. These essays thoroughly catalog
relationship between personalities, cities, issues, and histories
in these literature reviews."-Public Administration Review
"It provides a very useful and readable overview of a particular
strand of sports economics. It skillfully and in great detail
brings us to the present-day situation where public money is used
in large quantities to subsidise private businesses which, the
author argues, contributes little to the local or city economy. The
importance of this book is that it is grounded in a far longer
history of the interrelationship of sport and local and national
government....this is an illuminating set of readings whicch might
begin to inform the thinking about the importance (or otherwise) of
sport elsewhere in the world."-Urban Studies
"Those interested in this important contemporary topic spanning
economics, politics, urban studies, and public policy, spending a
couple hours with The Economics and Politics of Sports Facilities
would pass an economist's benefit-cost test."-Science & Technology
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