ABSTRACT
Using sport, events and tourism to stimulate economic growth in certain areas is a popular development strategy that a variety of levels of government have employed. This chapter discusses the relationship between sport, events and tourism development and urban regeneration in Arlington (Texas), Cleveland (Ohio), St. Louis (Missouri), Indianapolis (Indiana) and Santa Clara (California). It describes the role of public investment in the sport development strategies. The chapter explains the economic effects of public investment in the targeted community and addresses how the economic consequences are distributed across different groups in the communities. Public subsidy for private professional teams inevitably brings a significant controversy on equity across groups in a community. In the cities that used public subsidy for sports facilities and sporting events, state and local governments removed or reduced public services, reducing education budgets, and selling local hospitals, even while they asked taxpayers to pay for new and existing sports facilities.
