Novelty effects and sports facilities in smaller cities: Evidence from Canadian hockey arenas

Brian Soebbing, Daniel S Mason and Brad Humphreys
Additional contact information
Daniel S Mason: University of Alberta, Canada

Urban Studies, 2016, vol. 53, issue 8, 1674-1690

Abstract: Like their larger counterparts, smaller cities use public funds to build facilities to host local sports franchises. One argument for doing so is the new economic activity and attendance new facilities generate. However, academic research examining both major league stadium/arenas and minor league baseball stadiums finds a novelty effect – a brief period of higher attendance – exists but not a long-term sustainable increase for new facilities. This paper extends the research on small cities and novelty effects of sports facilities by integrating and exploring how city size and proximity influences the novelty effect of new hockey arenas in smaller communities. Results show a novelty effect for new facilities built to host Canadian Hockey League franchises for the first five years. In small cities, the novelty effect occurs only in years three through five after opening.

Keywords: arena funding; arenas; economic development; novelty effect; public subsidies; small cities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098015576862 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:53:y:2016:i:8:p:1674-1690

DOI: 10.1177/0042098015576862

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().