ABSTRACT
The decision to spend tax money for big-ticket items, such as sports facilities, museums, or entertainment and cultural centers to anchor redevelopment efforts can be linked to five separate sets of ideas. Together these ideas form a conceptual framework that explains the use of these assets to create an identity and advance a region’s economy. Within this framework lie the theories that explain and identify the expectations that guide the decisions made by governments to invest in big-ticket items. The case studies provide insight into the best ways to ensure that subsidies become investments while also expanding the empirical work available to sustain or refute various components of the conceptual framework.
