Sports Stadiums and the Effects on the Economy

Sports stadiums seem to continue to appear in cities across the nation and incessantly are being renovated. Consumers, social groups, and tax payers are beginning to express a concern with each stadium costing billions to build. The main concerns that have been expressed is where the money is coming from, how much that stadium is actually improving the economy, and will the stadium hurt the businesses already established in the town. 

“The word stadium originates from the Greek "stadion" (στ?διον), literally a (place where people) stand” (Stadium, para. 2). Before the depression, stadiums such as Wrigley Field, Tiger Stadium, Yankee Stadium, and Fenway Park were being built by using private funds (Helpme.com, para. 2). In the 1980’s America was spending about 1.5 billion on new stadiums; in the 1990's it spent 11 billion. Furthermore, in 1967 the cost to build the Kingdome was 67 million, in 1999 the cost to build Safeco Field was 517.6 million. (Helpme.com, para. 2) 

In Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, a stadium was imploded and two brand new stadiums were built in 2001. The median household income in Pittsburgh in 2000 was $28,588 (Pittsburgh city, para. 3). In 2004, the median household income in Pittsburgh only raised $3,000 to make it $31,910 (Pittsburgh city, para. 3). The most surprising statistic is that there were 161,182 people in Pittsburgh in the labor force in 2001. This number dropped to 144,791 four years later (Pittsburgh city, para. 2). The two brand new stadiums did not bring in any new jobs as the statistics show. The graph below shows the raises and drops in income and jobs.