The Charleston Boulevard-Main Street intersection is many things—congested nexus of east-west traffic, Downtown’s struggling epicenter, beating (and, some say, bleeding) heart of the arts district and ... the perfect spot for a 22,000-seat sports stadium that’ll (hopefully) house whatever pro sports team we’ll (hopefully) land in the future?
For now, only the first three descriptions apply, but the fourth could come to fruition if Michigan-based Real Estate Interests Group has its way. Step one involved REI submitting plans to the city; step two, a community meeting in which it failed to assuage fears; step three—which takes place 6 p.m. tonight at City Hall, when company officials will request a zoning change from the Planning Commission—will determine the next steps.
Of course much has to happen before we’re scarfing hot dogs, spilling nacho cheese in the stands and rooting our home team on to victory—the least of which is landing a team. More pressing for those rah-rah-ing for a stadium is overcoming opposition from arts district denizens who’ve mounted a NIMBY campaign to keep their neighborhood stadium-free. The area is zoned for commercial and light industrial. REI wants a mixed-use designation and gaming permits for three planned casinos.
“This stadium would have a significant effect on the arts district,” says Cindy Funkhouser, owner of the Funkhouse antique furniture store. “The new 1218 Gallery would be gone, Radiator Gallery would be gone, and the Dust and Godt-Cleary galleries would be staring at a wall. We all want this to be a real downtown. If they build this stadium, they’d have to take out more buildings. And where will the traffic go?”
Where, indeed? If you’ve driven Downtown during rush hour, you know there’s nothing fast about it. The stadium (which would run along Main and near the Union Pacific railroad tracks and include parking garages and retail and office/residential buildings) would bring more traffic. The casinos and condos (a combined 9,100 rooms)—even more. That 550,000 square feet of retail space—might as well give the project its own on- and off-ramps.
Stadiums have a spotty record of rejuvenating local economies. Built by REI, Detroit’s Ford Field (home of the NFL’s Lions) and Comerica Park (home of pro baseball’s Tigers) haven’t stimulated the economy as was hoped.
One detractor says, “There was a Las Vegas Downtown resident that came from Detroit a few days ago and said there is no growth of businesses around the sports arena there. We have also been told by residents and reporters from Detroit that the city has never financially recovered from this project.”
Michael LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, Michigan, says the development occurring in and around Ford Field and Comerica Park is largely the result of tax cuts, abatements, revitalization grants and other economic inducements.
Redirecting monies does not a renaissance make. Faive: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch; we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul. It’s poor public policy to anchor one’s economic revival on a sports stadium.”
In testimony on Capitol Hill in March, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign sports economist Brad Humphreys agreed, saying of sports stadiums, “The evidence of economic benefits just isn’t there.”
So the arts district has research on its side.
But one factor that may be more salient than the arts district’s research and whiny NIMBYism (it’s not like artisans have keyed a huge revitalization), the critical infrastructure issues (Downtown’s most admirable asset is freeway access), the serious financial questions and Mayor Oscar Goodman’s indefatigable insistence on building a stadium Downtown (Hizzoner declined comment until the project reaches the City Council) is that no one knows if it’ll work. There’s no guarantee a stadium or an arena will provide a consistent shot in the economy.
Who says these sports fans will stick around to gamble? Or that they’ll patronize the older properties? Will the jobs created pay livable wages? And if the public foots a share of the bill, how will that beneficence be returned?
Questions, questions. REI officials failed to return several calls seeking answers.