The City of Detroit, Economic Development and Comerica Park

Steve Gracheck

  Many sports franchises tout new stadiums as positive economical development tools. In reality, most are not as they are very expensive and the impact they bring about can take years to materialize. There are very few new stadiums constructed in the last 15 years that have been positive economic moves for a city. Detroit seems to be something of an exception in regard to the normal rules of development. Comerica Park was expensive to build, and about half of the funding came from tax payers. But the stadium has done things for Detroit that other development could not. A factory would not produce the sense of pride and interest the new park has. The monetary value associated with Comerica Park is going to take decades to break even, but areas around the Park have seen fairly dramatic growth in housing and development. Professional stadiums should not be considered economic cure-alls for an area. In some rare cases they bring an intrinsic value that can be enough to jumpstart a community in dire need of a boost.