This dissertation analyzes the processes behind post-World War II stadium-driven urban renewal in three major American cities: Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit. The historical and political contexts varied dramatically within these cities, allowing for an analysis of similarities and reoccurring trends in the processes of stadium-driven urban renewal that transcend the limitations inherent in an analysis of one particular place or time in history. This historical analysis of stadium construction provides a lens through which we can better understand the processes behind postwar urban renewal over the second half of the twentieth century. Previous scholarship on stadium construction, as discussed in the introduction, has demonstrated the well-documented motives of Major League Baseball owners who see publicly-funded stadiums as a means to dramatically increase revenues while catering to an increasingly upper-class clientele. And yet, even with more than three decades of scholarship that has definitively shown stadium construction to be a poor investment of public dollars, public officials all over the country continue to find ways to invest public money into private enterprise with little, if any, tangible return on investment for taxpayers.American cities are complex organisms made up of multiple clusters of associated people whose reasons for association vary as widely as kinship, race, gender, community, faith, employment, commercial partnership, or political affiliation. These clusters, which yield very different levels of influence and power, have competing visions and interests regarding the development of the city. And when it comes to stadium construction, or any other form of urban redevelopment, there are varying levels of personal impact; some clusters have more at stake. Losing a baseball team is extremely painful for local fans. The loss of local homes, businesses, and entire communities in the process of stadium development has adversely impacted the lives of local citizens. Major League Baseball owners always profit from the construction of a new stadium. But for this unequal return on investment to have continued successfully for so long, there must be clusters of association within the urban power structures that also, as they say, "make a killing" in these deals.This dissertation examines the clusters, or the connected associated interests, involved in the process of stadium construction. The term coalition is often used in public discussion and scholarship in the field, but there are some associated interests involved in these processes that are not overtly named (often intentionally) in the public presentation of these clusters. Moreover, one often finds "stadium coalitions" working with "pro-growth coalitions" with connections to "political coalitions" all simultaneously involved in these processes. This dissertation will first identify, and then articulate, the general processes and interests that form and influence those larger clusters of urban power and demonstrate that urban power nexuses continue to be shaped primarily by race, political connections and ultimately, and the will of the private sector. The history of postwar stadium-driven urban renewal demonstrates that the American city has been, and continues to be, refashioned for those willing to spend their discretionary income in rising urban tourist economies, often to the detriment of a once proud and increasingly displaced urban working class.
Read
