Sport and Downtown Development Strategy If You Build It, Will Jobs Come?

Abstract

:Many policy analysts have cautioned against public spending for professional and amateur sports. Within the last year, numerous cities have received demands from major and minor league teams for investments. These investments by the public sector can involve hundreds of millions of dollars and are usually defended by the economic impact of the facilities or teams and the economic development and revitalization which will follow. Indianapolis formulated an economic development strategy which relied substantially on sports. In addition, its development policies did not involve one team or facility, but a series of investments. As a result, the policies followed in Indianapolis afford an opportunity to measure the ability of sport facilities to encourage other investments and enhance economic development. The results reported here indicate that a sports strategy, even one as pronounced and as articulated as that of Indianapolis, is likely to have an inconsequential impact on development and economic growth.