We examine the impact of new sports facilities on new businesses, an unexplored topic in the literature. We use data from the Dun and Bradstreet MarketPlace files to examine how new sports facilities affect nearby business activity in terms of the number of new businesses and workers. We find no evidence of increased new businesses openings after the opening of new sports facilities in 12 U.S. cities in the 2000s; employment at new businesses near new facilities is larger than at new businesses elsewhere in the metropolitan statistical area; this increase cannot be linked to businesses in any specific industry.
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