News
Stadium Building Boom: How Long Should An Old Stadium Last?
June 23, 2016
If you ask the Texas Rangers, the answer is “not long”—the City Council of Arlington, TX, approved a plan last month to pay for half of the team’s new $1B stadium.
It will be the team’s third since the early 1970s, and the Rangers are not alone. Of all 17 ballparks opened between 1960 and 1982 only four are still in use, and those that closed had an average life span of 31 years, Bloomberg reports.
It looks like American cities are on the edge of a stadium-building boom.
“This is all driven by economics and greed rather than actual needs,” says Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross.
While many people are against public funding of stadiums, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to slow down anytime soon. [Bloomberg]
