Exactly ... Read Pierre Burton's Book "Niagara" ... though it's written more about the canadian side, it shows how we developed more on the industrial side and canada focused more on tourism.
Now that the industry dried up, we need to take stock of what is left and redevelop for tourism. Unfortunately, the (unelected) powers that be that run the city and the out-of-state land developers sitting on prime property waiting to make a killing if non-indian gambling ever happens have killed any chance to capitalize on anything. For crying out loud, the poor guy who used to own the ice cream shop by the Rainbow Bridge had to fought the city for years to build a hot dog stand.
A stadium in Niagara Falls, while it would be GREAT, will NEVER happen.