Not Even Football is Immune From the Financial Crisis

People these days are staying in and watching movies instead of going out and spending money. Does that mean no more football games? Ben Casselman in the Wall Street Journal explores the problem of opening high-tech, luxury sports stadiums in a recession.

“In a case of monumentally bad timing,” Casselman writes, “this year three of the biggest names in pro sports — the Yankees, New York Mets and Dallas Cowboys — are opening three of the most expensive stadiums ever built, filled with premium-priced seats and luxury amenities. At a combined cost of more than $3.5 billion, the stadiums were conceived and financed in a vastly different environment, a time when corporations and municipalities were flush with cash. Now they’re opening just as corporate America is going through a massive belt-tightening — and trying to avoid the appearance of extravagance at all costs.”

Are these futuristic, luxury sports arenas going to be collecting dust like a Las Vegas McMansion or will America bounce back in time to enjoy our national pastimes—in luxury—again? Email your thoughts to sean@bigthink.com.