ABSTRACT
Increasingly, cities are engaging in competition with one another, at a number of different levels. As Begg observed (1999: 798-9), ‘the capacity of a city to compete is shaped by an interplay between the attributes of cities as locations and the strengths and weaknesses of the firm and other economic agents active within them’. Within this context, sports facilities have emerged as key components of revitalization strategies for the downtown cores of competitive post-industrial NorthAmerican cities (Fainstein and Judd 1999), where patterns
of development revolve around the creation of new infrastructure, including convention centres, sport stadiums and arenas, and retail shopping facilities that draw citizens and tourists alike (Burbank et al. 2001). These amenities serve as anchors for rejuvenating other business and cultural components of downtown areas, and typically feature one or more newer sport facilities for major league professional sports teams, combined with retail areas featuring shopping outlets and restaurants chains of large, TNCs such as Starbucks and the Hard Rock Café.
