As a follow-up to my post regarding tax-subsidized stadiums, Radley Balko has an interesting anecdote regarding the Indiana Pacers and their arena shenanigans.
Many modern athletic compounds are like castles of yore, both are funded through coercion and neither has much utility outside their ultra-specific modes of existence:
Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show ‘em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one… stayed up! And that’s what you’re gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these islands. -Monty Python’s: The Holy Grail