ancient cities

the number of knowledge workers led to the disavowal
of the urban core. From the postwar-era
demise of previously populated and prosperous
urban cores emerged tension between increasingly
decaying, evacuated, and demonized urban cores
and evermore affluent and exalted suburban
peripheries distinguished by material commodities
that conspicuously defined lifestyles. This accelerated
suburban landscape was bolstered by the
massive outmigration of mainly middle-income
White inhabitants from the urban cores of midwestern
and northeastern cities, combined with
large-scale immigration of predominantly poor
African Americans from the rural South into the
evacuated urban centers, disinvestment in the urban
low-wage labor market in favor of service-oriented
suburban employment centers, and the retrenchment
of social welfare programs. The cumulative
result of this concerted postwar neglect has been
most visibly manifest in polarized patterns and
experiences of postindustrial suburban socioeconomic
growth and urban socioeconomic decline.
As a result of these socioeconomic and political
processes, the contemporary American city evolved
into two starkly contrasting spaces: the predominantly
White and affluent distending suburbs and
the largely Black urban cores.
Along with the movement of homes, people,
jobs, and marketplaces, city officials and sports
team owners were keen to take advantage of economical
land, perceived stable neighborhoods,
enhanced transportation connections, and a location
near middle-class consumers. As such, a large proportion
of stadiums built following World War II
were located in, or near, the new suburbs. Indeed,
by the 1970s, one fifth of all arenas built in North
America were in suburban areas. Examples include
the Forum in Inglewood, Los Angeles; Brendan
Byrne Arena in Meadowlands, New Jersey; and
Nassau County Coliseum in Uniondale, New
York. Rather than the enchanted stadiums that
characterized those built prior to 1945, these
domed stadiums also tended to be rationalized,
multiuse stadiums containing synthetic grass
(Astroturf), fixed roofs, and huge seating capacities,
as owners and city officials alike looked to
draw out competitive and fiscal advantages from
these stadiums. In this sense, the Houston Astrodome
(1965), Pittsburgh’s Three River Stadium (1970),
Cincinnati’s Cinergy Field (1970), and the Seattle
Sports Stadiums
763
Kingdome (1976) were built not just to house their
home city’s sporting teams (often more than one
playing within the same venue) but also to play
host to a variety of entertainment events from rock
concerts to religious gatherings, political conventions
to livestock and rodeo shows. In 2005 the
Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans and
Houston’s Astrodome were utilized by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency to house victims
of Hurricane Katrina.
Sports Stadiums, Post-1990
Given the evacuation of the mass manufacturing
economy from its traditional home in U.S. cities of
the Northeast and Midwest and the concomitant
decline in urban tax bases, populations, and public
expenditure, many cities have expedited a shift
from a managerial to an entrepreneurial style of
governance. Less interested in enhancing public
welfare than attracting private capital, the postindustrial
cities function to attract highly mobile and
flexible production, financial, and consumption
flows. Within this evermore entrepreneurial climate,
and with a need to address the negative
preexisting perceptions of the urban environment,
many cities find themselves competing against
each other to attract capital investment from corporate,
governmental, and retail sectors. Shorn of
their traditional industrial manufacturing economies,
many North American cities have become
preoccupied with their replacement by commercial
initiatives that engage, and seek to reconstitute,
the urban environment as a multifaceted space of
consumption and capital accumulation. Urban
redevelopment and regeneration projects have
tended to be concentrated within relatively small
tourist-oriented areas or enclaves that project a
reassuringly dislocated experience and perception
of safety, fun, and vitality for downtown areas.
Along with obligatory components and expressions
of contemporary urban viability—shopping
(festival marketplaces and malls); dining (theme
restaurants and cafés); entertainment (theaters,
sports facilities, museums, live music, casinos); and
visitor infrastructure (hotels, convention centers)—
these spectacular spaces of consumption are
increasingly predicated on sporting investment. So,
while the 1980s featured the proliferation of festival
malls, in the 1990s, cities turned to sports