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i think we need to step back and address something important..
is the real issue at hand so much that by locating stadiums downtown, the surrounding areas become more "lively"..? or is the main reasoning for locating arenas/stadiums in downtown because downtowns are the main focus of the metro, centrally located for the majority of the local population to be within close proximity of?
i agree football stadiums don't need to be downtown.. they take up way too much space for too little a use. all the other venues though, why not? it works best for the majority of the population. by locating your arenas/stadiums out in <insert rich suburb here>, on some random edge of the metro, you are making it much harder for the people on the other side of the metro to travel to/attend games.
its taken a while (Houstons first downtown sports venue, Minute Maid Park, was built in 2000), but once the city of Houston announced a downtown living initiative/residential incentives program a few years ago to make downtown residential more economically feasible, developers clamored to sites around the local sports venues.
new projects within a few blocks of each venue..
- Minute Maid Park
500 Crawford - 400 units
Catalyst - 361 units
Alexan Downtown - 267 units
Great Southwest Building redevelopment - 162 units
Trammell Crow Tower - 314 units
Marquette(s other) Residential Tower - 304 units
The Cosmopolitan - 209 units
- Toyota Center
Camden Conte Towers I & II - 550 units
Leon Capital Residential - 220 units
Allied Orion - 242 units
Marlowe - 100 units
- BBVA Compass Stadium
EaDo Apartments - 311 units
going by some rough math i just did in my head, thats almost 3500 residential units planned or going up within a few blocks of the downtown area sports venues. assuming those stadiums are responsible for the nearby residential, if you don't consider 3500 units filled with residents as helping add to the vibrancy of downtown, then no wonder you don't think sports venues make surrounding areas more popular/lively.
In summary, there's no guarantee that building a stadium or arena will help revitalize a city's downtown, but there's no guarantee that it won't either. There has to be a good strategy in place in order for it to work, plus a long-term focus to see the strategy through.
DC commercial real estate brokers don't agree with you.
The East End couldn't compete with K Street prior to the MCI/VZ Center, and don't forget how run down that area used to be. The increase in tax assessments back to the city was also significant. The impact there was one of the justifications of Nats Park, which has done wonders for its immediate neighborhood.
The DC stadiums didn't build up downtown the way Coors did for Denver, or Petco did for San Diego, but they extended downtown into adjacent neighborhoods.
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