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The Economic Benefits of Sports Teams Are Difficult to Define

Sports teams are popular for improving brand image of a city and encouraging greater investment in downtown districts. People become attached to the image of a sports team as a representation of their city. The economic advantage of sports teams can be difficult to define as traditional economic measurements look for close relationships.  Putting the advantages of sports teams in perspective may help encourage focus on other economic fundamentals.     Arenas are expensive and methods of financing them come from multiple sources. According to one study of American and U.S. facilities 70% of the money is from public coffers even though the teams are private (Siegfried & Zimbalist, 2006). The large cost of construction and the land and zoning requires require public involvement.   There should be a difference between a sports team and an arena. The arena is the physical facility that sports teams play in and are often financed through public monies. The team is licen

What Can Sharks, Bees and Humans Teach Us About Urban Development?

Torrey Pines Sharks, Bees and Humans forage and explore in many of the same ways.  Researchers at University of Arizona studied the foraging and exploring patterns of a number of creatures in their habitats ( 1 ). In particular, they looked at the Hadza people of Tanzania who still forage and hunt in the same way that our ancestors did. To their amazement, they found similar patterns of activities among broad species. The pattern is known as the Levy walk and is based on mathematical principles. The same patterns exist when foraging for food or walking around an amusement park ( 2 ). It entails short movements around a particular area and then longer movements into newer areas. Co-author and anthropologist Brian Woods from Yale states, “ Detecting this pattern among the Hadza, as has been found in several other species, tells us that such patterns are likely the result of general foraging strategies that many species adopt, across a wide variety of context s” ( 3 ).  They