Towns and stadiums suffering together

Image from NYT

Ah, the dream of stadiums as a driver of economic growth. It does happen. But it's not a quick fix.

The NYT has an interesting article today, "Company's Arenas Leave Cities with Big Problems." The article describes the pain several smaller towns in more remote locations are experiencing because of their stadium strategies. They are now left with the high costs of maintaining the building and paying back the initial debt without the expected revenue. Other city services are being cut to keep the stadium afloat. There are few available buyers for stadiums, though I do recall a moment during the real estate bubble when there were quite a few international buyers for unattractive real estate.

(Apparently the cities bought into the sales job from Global Entertainment, promised. Full list of stadiums this company helped build, pdf.)

[I've written a few times about stadiums at BttN and interestingly, this post, A stadium round-up is consistently one of the most popular pages on this site. (Probably because sports fans trying to find a nearby stadium vastly outnumber urban nerds.)]