I think that this is a fallacy. I live in Charlotte and we have a donwtown football stadium. The stadium plus the associated parking deck and practice facility basically blot out a whole section of downtown and are rarely used. Unlike basketball/hockey arenas, football stadiums are huge and you don't fill them with rock concerts or conventions. Counting home football games, the stadium here might be used 12 dates per year. The teams doesn't even practice on it most of the time. There are the usual built in restaurants, shops and clubs but they don't justify the downtown square footage, IMO.