Abstract
Determinants of political support for new sports facilities are explored. We test to what extent the civic attachment and civic optimism of a respondent promotes support for new facilities. Survey data from the 2005 CBS News/New York Times monthly poll were analyzed to find variables that affected public support for a new stadium for the New York Mets and a new arena for the New Jersey Nets. Whether New Yorkers’ were optimistic about the future of New York and whether they planned to continue living in New York had a significant impact on whether they supported new facilities. Demographic factors that frequently explain political differences did not have a significant effect. Respondents with greater civic attachment and optimism were more likely to support major sports projects. The findings open the door for additional research on how civic attachment and optimism impact the willingness of community residents to support major public projects.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank Jeff Mondak and Bob Jackson for their editorial and methodological guidance in this undertaking.
Notes
A previous version of this paper was presented at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association.
1 These authors contributed equally to this work.