"Across Europe and the US, stadiums have become the great hope of urban regeneration – the prize asset that will, local officials hope, bring life and money back to stagnating cities. Superficially this seems like a perfect marriage: top clubs need the increased revenue that bigger, more sophisticated stadiums with richer facilities will bring, and cities need the boost to economic activity that should in theory follow from the construction of a major new venue. It’s true, of course, that in professional sport’s new world, revenue is king. For a football club in Europe to move, say, from a cramped and under-serviced 30,000-seater to a sleek new arena with room for 60,000 people and all the other assorted nonsense represents a massive step up in economic power, with the security to lock in chunky revenue streams for decades to come. In England, the economic incentives for stadium construction are even more powerful given that infrastructure expenses are exempt from the Premier League’s new profitability rules: for top clubs, building big has become something akin to a financial free kick."
new grounds won’t rescue your club – or your city
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