| Abstract: |
North American cities have long encouraged redevelopment of their downtown
cores to counteract the flight of residents and business to the suburbs in the
postwar period. Building subsidized arenas and stadiums for professional
sports teams downtown became common in the 1960s. In recent years, downtown
stadiums and arenas have been proposed as components in larger redevelopment
projects containing a number of other amenities, as well, including housing
and other entertainment attractions. The justification for such developments
rests in part on the public goods generated by vibrant, prosperous downtowns.
Yet little is known about the value of such downtown public goods. This paper
reports the results of two Contingent Valuation Method surveys to determine
willingness to pay for new National Hockey League arenas in downtown Edmonton
and Calgary in the Canadian province of Alberta. The hypothetical scenarios in
both surveys varied to include affordable housing, a casino, and cultural
space in addition to the arena. The surveys provide the first estimates of
willingness to pay for downtown public goods for sports arenas, and also
provide the first estimates of scope effects, that is, the willingness to pay
for expansions of public goods, in the sports economics literature. Key Words: |