I was at ground zero for the Arlington Cowboys Stadium debate (while on staff at UT Arlington). There are a number of reasons I don't live there anymore - and the stadium is one of them. Likely if I had stayed in the Metroplex I would have relocated to another city - more on principle and concerns about the opportunity costs of the stadium than the actual out-of-pocket expenses.

I agree that, in general, the development gains from new stadiums are generally overblown, but I think the jury is out on this stadium (and perhaps a few other ones such as new Yankee Stadium). As Mark Rosentraub has documented in his new book "Major League Winners" there are a few (just a few) examples of stadiums/arenas yielding some gain (I am reading it for review at the moment).*

Whether there are gains, monetary or non-monetary, is somewhat a question of fact and somewhat a question of ideology, especially when it comes to the measurement of quality of life compared to the opportunity costs of the stadium.

I admit to fighting the good fight against the taxpayer's of Arlington (at least) paying for a portion of the stadium, actually drawing some attention to myself as I howled in the wind. However, the stadium referendum passed (relatively overwhelmingly 55-45) and I ended up taking a new position at UNC Charlotte.

From my contacts with those still in Arlington, the general spirit is one of optimism concerning the stadium - perhaps there is no other way to feel about the stadium at the moment. .

However, I have strong evidence (N=6) that the Arlington Cowboys Stadium did provide third-party benefits for myself and two co-authors. Using the stadium debate and the Arlington referendum, we were able publish two ground-breaking papers (one in Contemporary Economic Policy and one in the Journal of Urban Economics). I know that those two publications helped in my tenure bid at UNC Charlotte and likely ended up translating into some permanent increase in my income. In the end, this is perhaps the strongest evidence I have found of third-party benefits of a new publicly built stadium in Arlington Texas.

We have more projects underway concerning the Arlington stadium so we will see in the next few years (decade?) whether this particular stadium can be grouped with Rosentraub's "Winners" or with Rosentraub's "Losers."

This is in contrast to another Mark Rosentraub book "Major League Losers."