One would think any potential lost taxes would more than be made up in revenue from other sources, let alone the taxes that those revenues would generate.
That will work in some cases and not others.
When the Metrodome came in there was to be this transformation of the east side into an area of increase tax base. The only thing we go was Hubert's and some parking lot owner making a killing on tailgating which sure did not help the tax base.
Midway stadium would be another one where it did not increase the tax base or interest in restaurants. To my knowledge, only Gabe's on the park profited from the stadium game days. But they also had an expense with driving many of their customers to the games with shuttles. Midway did not increase property taxes or sales taxes from food and beverages.
The X in St. Paul became a boom to St. Paul for many reasons. The biggest reason was pent up demand for Hockey in the state of Minnesota. They were replacing an old out of date facility with a new state of the art stadium which gave fans that experience that they wanted when they came from Outstate or the west burbs. They had a market due to having the Northstars here for many years.. The X also already had a built in restaurant row and hotels that were remodeled and reinvested in. In the end, it was build it and fans came in large numbers spending money.
The Twins stadium was similar to the X in they had a market that was already established. The stadium was at the end of the LRT line and the restaurants of 1st Ave were already there with in walking distance, but just under utilized. Unlike the Metrodome where there was little interest in developing the land around it. The stadium was a catalyst that took what had been a slow growing interest in the NL and created great interest. There was already interest in the NL which helped bring more interest and gave developers confidence that their investments would not be in vain.
The Soccer stadium is in an area removed from the warehouse district by a nice long walk. Other than the farmer's Market there is no other restaurants or businesses that will support a group of restaurants when there is not a game day. Unless McGuire can get us some United Health jobs set up next to the stadium, highly unlikely with them just completing a new campus in the burbs, there is little of any lunch crowd. It would take a ridicules number of apartment units to justify a few restaurants for setting up shop. All I have to do is use Hubert's on Chicago as a litmus as to what you need to exceed with a profitable business. If it were not for HCMC I think that Hubert's would have gone under a long time ago.
Again the build it and it will be fantastic rarely happens. One can fantasize that a perfect world will happen. But how many for sure project got started or opened just as a recession came along and bankrupt the developer because there was not enough momentum or synergy around the project. In 30+ years I've seen that happen much more than the rare blip that we have now where we can do no wrong. Where we are on a roll. As they say what goes up must come down. What gets too hot will burst and the bubble will take years to fix once it has burst.
