ISBN-13: 9780875803050 / Angielski / Miękka / 2003 / 224 str.
Across the nation, stadiums and sports centers have become an increasingly important aspect of urban redevelopment action. How do these projects affect the people in the communities surrounding new facilities? Focusing on Chicago's recent experiences, Costas Spirou and Larry Bennett examine two stadiums - the United Center and Comiskey Park - as well as the installation of lights at Wrigley Field. The authors argue that stadiums can be effective tools for urban revitalization only if community organizations and local conditions are closely involved in the planning process. The execution of these three major Chicago projects occurred over the span of just a few years in the late 1980s and early 1990s. As Chicago sports franchises sought new or improved home fields, distinctive patterns of planning and negotiation emerged, shifting the dynamics of neighborhood mobilization. Spirou and Bennett explore these projects' impacts on neighborhoods, interpreted in the larger scope of redefining Chicago as an economically dynamic global city. It's Hardly Sportin' challenges the way city officials view the effect of new and redesigned stadiums. Instead of focusing on whether stadiums contrib