Law Commons^™

The last twenty years have seen an unprecedented growth in the number of new sports facilities for professional sports teams. This incidence has been matched by an equally extraordinary trend of state and local governments providing public financing to help build such facilities. This article analyzes this burgeoning area of urban economic redevelopment and attempts to answer the controversial question of whether the public financing of new sports facilities is economically justifiable. The article dissects the real estate and financial deals between state and local governments and the professional sports teams and developers, and critiques the alleged benefits that advocates …

When the new City Charter took effect on July 1, 2000, Los Angeles cast aside a seventy-five year old governing structure in favor of a streamlined system more reflective of the political realities of a twenty-first century metropolis. It was in many ways a typical Los Angeles moment. Dissatisfied with a municipal institution designed for another age, voters looked to the future and embraced sweeping changes in the fundamental operations of the city. Fully sixty percent of voters rejected a venerable but outdated document and chose a new but unproven one. More importantly, voters opted for legislation that reflected the …