The Stadium Is Downtown Now, and the Owner Is Also the Developer
Arenas and stadiums across the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS are increasingly concentrated in the downtown cores of Canadian and American cities. In 1997, 51 per cent of NFL and MLB stadiums and NBA and NHL arenas were downtown; recent research puts that share at 61 per cent.
The property story runs alongside the planning one: as ownership groups move into real estate development, they are becoming increasingly influential in reshaping the downtowns their venues sit in. At the end of 2025, 37 new districts with a major league venue were planned or proposed in Canada and the United States.
So the venue is no longer just the thing the city gets and the team uses. It is the anchor around which a much larger piece of city is assembled, and the people assembling it are the same people who benefit from it.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The 61 per cent — up from 51 per cent of NFL and MLB stadiums and NBA and NHL arenas in 1997 — is a fact about where teams play. The 37 districts with a major league venue planned or proposed at the end of 2025 are a fact about what gets built around them.
Which is the part to watch. Ownership groups moving into real estate development is not the same claim as a downtown being revived for the people who already live there, and only one of those two things tends to show up in the renderings.