The impact of stadiums and arenas

The issue of whether a stadium has a positive or negative economic impact can only be properly addressed by considering the stadium, its location, the major team or team that will play there, and overall utilization. The stadiums and arenas reflect marked differences between baseball, football, and basketball attendance and their respective economic impacts. There is also the issue of city image and personal pride. While stadiums can create the initial elements of positive change, it usually take over 20 years for positive actions to gentrify a neighborhood. Football stadiums have the least overall impact. Stadiums in urban residential neighborhoods can have the greatest economic impact. Baseball stadiums have the greatest economic impact because they play so many games. Most new stadiums today are publicly owned or controlled by a public/private corporation, so generally less taxes are paid than if the team was privately owned. In total today, a major baseball team and its stadium usually have an impact of between $175,000 and $225,000 on the local economy. Stadiums usually do not pay for themselves.