Do local businesses benefit from sports facilities? The case of major league stadiums and arenas

We use daily mobile foot traffic data covering major league sports facilities and the surrounding commercial establishments in the US to pin down the size and the spatial distribution of foot traffic spillovers from sports facilities to local businesses. By employing the fixed effects and the IV estimation strategies, we show that the spillover benefits are heterogeneous across sports and business sectors. We find that 100 baseball stadium visits generate roughly 29 visits to nearby food & accommodation businesses and about 6 visits to local retail establishments. While the estimates for football stadiums are comparable, basketball & hockey arenas do not appear to generate significant spillovers for the surrounding businesses.