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Originally Posted by delts145
We shall see, won't we? Given the amount of investment about to occur in real estate redevelopment downtown, it's hardly a far-fetched notion. Besides, judging from the percentage of my predictions over the past almost 20 years on this forum actually happening, it might not be a forgone conclusion but at least it's a reasonable possibility. Perhaps it will take a little more than within this year's announcements, but it will happen within a reasonably sped-up time frame.
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While it's not universal across the board, I think those cities that have built stadiums in downtown areas where there wasn't much development, a few years later those areas are completely transformed. Look at Petco Park in San Diego, it's a dramatic difference in what that area, which was not a great part of their downtown, looks like now compared to when construction started. Part of that is due to planning when the stadium was constructed and the developer of the stadium also being a big real estate developer. But the amount of high-rise condo towers in the immediate area is stunning.
If not done right, you get places like Kansas City, where the baseball and football stadiums are an island in the middle of an ocean of parking lot, the closest commercial seems to be a Taco Bell and a Best Western (oh and a Subway). Or Dallas, building a football and 2 baseball stadiums out in suburbia, surrounded by parking lots as well and not much else.
If done right, a stadium or arena can be a major catalyst for construction that general area of a city vs another part of the city. Doubt it has a direct correlation, but with the right planning and forward-thinking minds envisioning 10 years down the road, you can definitely get an arena that is surrounded by a lot of new construction, high energy area with things to do, eat and see outside of gamedays. ANd an extra 41 (minimum) nights of activity throughout the winter, when normally people in Utah would not be out that much, will have a huge effect.