Orlando and Conspicuous Growth

by:
Samuel D. Bates
Research Chair:
Prof. Jessica Jacques
Abstract
City growth is a phenomenon that impacts nearly everyone. An argument could even be
made that it impacts those living in other countries and away from the American ideology of
modern civilization. They still sometimes suffer the repercussions of the waste and the factories.
Everyone is touched by growth. At what point does growth become too much? Can there be good
or bad growth? If so, who should be the judge of good growth or bad growth? How should
growth be measured? These are all questions that will be either explored in the literature review
section of this study, or explored throughout research. It will be study of both secondary data,
and independent research. This study will use a particular instance of a city in Florida building a
soccer stadium. The study will use a variety of sociological theories in this study including:
Conspicuous Consumption, City as a Growth Machine, Symbolic Interaction, and Structural
Functionalism. Multiple theories are needed because theories are found to work best together.
Using multiple theories helps to examine concepts from various perspectives, thus helping make
the argument of if the new soccer stadium Orlando wishes to build is Conspicuous Consumption,
or just simply the city growing to compete with other cities.

Bates |2

Introduction
The concept of rational capitalism caused a drastic change in behavior in the way social
groups interact. Before capitalism, people were born into rich families, or not born into rich
families. Crossing the line of the spectrum to the other was rare. The ratio of rich families to poor
families was fewer than today. With the concept of capitalism came the possibility for anyone to
make money. Fast forward a few hundred years and the result is fierce competition among
different groups. The case of a the new Orlando Soccer Stadium (OSS) is a prime example of
money and growth. A new stadium means growth, and one of the ideas Moloch raises in his
research is that cities either grow or diminish, they rarely stay stagnant. This article will examine
the NIMBY (not-in-my-back-yard) attitude as well as various other theories on growth in regard
to the OSS.
The NIMBY idea is relatively basic. It says that the majority of people like growth, and
like having things to do in their free time--conspicuous leisure as Veblen would say--but they do
not like these extra activities impacting their home life. Past case studies have been done
examining the negative consequences of building a sports stadium. The idea is that sports
stadiums are good because they promote growth. As stated before, and it will be elaborated more
in the literature review section, the nature of capitalism requires growth. Soccer stadiums bring
tourists who spend money. At first glance, it seems great. There are several unintended
consequences that must be taken into consideration. This paper will: examine various arguments
on growth, present a research design that will examine demographics, use secondary data, and do
a content analysis of news reports and eventually come to a conclusion offering a verdict if
building sports stadiums is the best method for Orlando to keep up with the growth of other
cities.

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Literature Review
The growing city seams great in theory, however, there are several unintended
consequences that accompany growth. Some growth becomes conspicuous consumption, as
Veblen talks about in his book The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899). These consequences can
have detrimental repercussions on various groups of people. John Logan & Harvey Molotch
write that these repercussions are because of competing groups (2013). The powerful groups are
referred to "group members" described in their work(2011). David Whitson and Donald
Macintosh did research on the benefits and negative impacts sports and tourism. In 2013, Peter
Gordon did research in the driving factors that cause cities to grow. A team of mathematicians:
Raul Bertero, Alejandro Lehmann, Joun Mussat, and Sebastion Vasquero researched how sound
works to show the mechanics of why it is undesirable to live near a stadium. This results in
poverty areas around some stadiums. This is a form of environmental injustice.
Peter Gordon believed that before growth could be talked about, a knowledge of the
history of growth is necessary. Steven Landsburg (2007) wrote in one of his journals that for
most of history, as far as the history of human kind is concerned, most people lived the same
way. A part from the very few wealthy individuals, in American dollars, most people lived in the
four-hundred to six-hundred dollar salary range. With the spirit of capitalism came a lot of
people making significantly more money much faster than ever before. In modern economies,
most people work less and make more than ever before. The idea of people making more money,
and having more leisure time forced the cities to grow. Now that more people had money, they
all wanted to expand to make more profits, or expand to have more things to do. This creates a
conflict of interest among different groups of people.

Bates |4
Moloch talks a lot about various groups competing for power. He does this through his
idea that the city is a growth machine. This is one of the things that feeds the growth of the city.
Each of these groups believes that growth is a good thing. Because each group believes growth is
good they all try to expand which results in competition among the groups. It is a similar concept
to Buttle's Treadmill of Production (2004). Members of the growth machine have the ideology
that citizens should take pride in the fact that their city is growing regardless of how the growth
impacts the urban areas (Molotch). Peter Gordon wrote his interpretation of what economists
mean when they call cities "engines of growth". People move to cities with the intension of
obtaining resources to try out ideas in the business world. They come to cities and start their
ideas using other people's ideas. Other people move to the city and collaborate their ideas with
the first person's ideas. It becomes a group of entrepreneurs that grows, thus making the city
grow and contributing to the city as a growth machine. The idea of growth is substantial to the
point of undermining the local community.
David Whitson and Donald Macintosh did a research project to portray that the goods of
growth are rarely evenly distributed among citizens. This uneven distribution of goods is
manifested in both location of growth, clientele, and changes in property value. Whitson and
Macintosh use the Olympics as one of their prime examples. Hosting the Olympics is a status
symbol that recognizes that city as a "world-class city" (1996). Another argument for the goods
of growth is rooted in the work by Noll and Zimbalist (2001). Noll and Zimbalist wrote about the
reasoning cities use to justify building a new stadium in their article Sports in Contemporary
Sociery:
First, building a the facility creates construction jobs. Second, people who attend the
games or work for the team generate new spending in the community, expanding local
employment. Third, a team attracts tourists and companies to the host city, further

Bates |5
increasing and local spending and jobs. Finally, all this new spending has a "multiplier
effect" as increased local income causes still more spending and job creation (248).
Tourism and sports are the two big things that cities strive for. When combined, these two things
are a powerful force of profit. Unfortunately, all the profit is concentrated to a single stadium and
a few stores and hotels near the stadium. Noll and Zimbalist found that growth happens when the
core of a city becomes more productive. It takes more than a sports team to generate revenue for
the city. The land, the community, and the resources of the city all need to become more
productive to generate profit. Concentrating a massive amount of business to one area does more
harm than good. This in turn hurts the local businesses, the sporting events draw in the locals,
causing the small businesses to hurt.
Adam Zaretsky gives an explanation of how stadiums should be funded. Cities should
never fund the construction of stadiums because of the slow profit the country receives in return.
It is a public good, however, the city rarely makes significant revenue. Research by Gans (2010)
found that the old financing tactic to finance new stadiums was tax increases, the newest tactic is
an increase in ticket prices. Arguments for using tax money stems from the vast amount of tax
revenue that comes from each game. Taxes on food, merchandise, hotels, and transportation are
all related to each game. This poses ethical questions because it forces people who are not
involved with any sports to pay for the stadium. Even most patrons of the stadium agree that
regardless of the state of the economy, tax money should be spent elsewhere.
This study examines a soccer stadium in Orlando that the people in power wish to build,
this is far from the first case of this type of action. Charles Tu (2005) did a case study on the
building of the FedEx Field on the Potomac Yard near Washington D.C. Potomac Yard is an
abandoned train yard. As stated before, the city tries to build such stadiums because they become

Bates |6
symbols of status. Koehler finds in his study that residents rarely want these types of structures
near their home (2012). This is the NIMBY argument. Koehler disagrees with past ideas that
building stadiums brings economic development. Sports teams are in high demand, if one city
does not want to pay for a team, the team will simply go to a city that will pay. A consequence of
this is that a team may potentially cost money. Charles Tu has an alternate belief about growth.
Tu's case study in Washington portrayed that sports centers raise property values. Tu found that
anything located two or more miles away from a stadium is not affected by property value
changes. Property values less than a two mile radius from the stadium drop roughly ten percent
in value. Koehler makes an argument that growth is bad because the types of jobs it creates do
not help the middle class. Tu critiques this ideology by saying that the types of people that live in
the area of a new stadium usually need a second or third minimum wage job.
The effect college football has on the local economy is generally mixed, and remains an
area of fascination among researchers (Baade, R. A., Baumann, R. W., & Matheson, V. A., 2008).
The idea of a new stadium often appears beneficial, but city planners rarely consider what
economists call the "substitution effect", which refers to consumers spending money at a game as
opposed to spending money in another venue in the local economy. It is the idea that sports
stadiums do not generate revenue, they just move revenue. The researchers Baade, Baumann, &
Matheson found little correlation between college football and the city's economic prosperity.
The idea that sports games only move revenue from one venue to another has the worst impacts
on small towns. Big cities are generally big enough that they can survive a big game day, small
towns have less resources and less clientele, therefore, a big game day hurts small towns more
than bigger cities. As seen in the literature review, a vast amount of research has been completed

Bates |7
on sports and revenue. There are limited case studies. A goal of this research is to contribute to
the case studies of specific cities as the stadium is constructed.

Theoretical Framework
Veblen and Moloch both talk about wealth as symbols. Veblen built his career out of what
he calls "conspicuous consumption" (1899). Moloch wrote about how once a city starts growing,
it has to keep expanding. There is no middle level, either the city is growing or shrinking. This
study will use a combination of these two theorists and try to make an argument for the city of
Orlando, Fl. Snow wrote in one of his articles that Herbert Blumer built off older theorists and
constructed the idea of symbolic interaction (2001). The paper research will also examine growth
from a functionalist perspective. Veblen wrote about conspicuous consumption. Conspicuous
consumption is using money to buy visible symbols of wealth. If an individual performs this, it is
the individual purchasing and wearing an expensive article of clothing, or an expensive vehicle.
A city has more significant purchases it needs to make in order to achieve a symbol of wealth or
status. Whitson and Macintosh wrote about such purchases--in the case of Orlando, Fl.--a soccer
stadium. Moloch wrote about competing interest groups. The families living on Paramour have
an interest to keep their way of live, city officials, the ones in power, have an interest to grow.
This research will apply Veblens theory, Molochs ideas, and Durkheims functionalism
to city growth. The soccer stadium will be viewed as a purchase to symbolize wealth, status, and
power. Molochs idea will be applied examining if how much of a choice Orlando had in the
purchase of a soccer stadium. There is the idea that city officials could have denied the stadium,
however, that may have been preventing potential growth. Finally, Durkheims theory will
examine the social goods that rise out of this type of growth and the function of such purchases
in a society.

Bates |8

Methodology
The ideal research design is a multi-method study consisting of secondary data, surveys,
interviews, and a content analysis of various news articles. There is a plethora of information in
the General Service Survey (GSS) and STATES10 data pertaining to the citizens living in
poverty. A survey will be developed and implemented through qualtrics using various social
media sites and email. This will ensure anonymity. At the end of the survey, participants will be
given the option to leave their contact information. The participants will be contacted and an
interview will be set up. The interview will consist of several open ended questions. The content
analysis of the research will collect news articles written about the Orlando soccer stadium and
look for emergent themes.
The first section of the study is an analysis of secondary data. Both the GSS and the
STATES10 data have a large number of variables about poverty and views of poverty. The first
section of the research design analyzes all the information pertaining to poverty in the two
databases. It will examine the following variables: poverty levels, income levels, various age
groups living in poverty, socioeconomic prestige score, welfare, social security, and personal
income. This research is the study of the repercussions of city expansion on a poverty
neighborhood. The secondary data will give the research a base understanding of empirical
poverty before a study on a specific area is completed.
The next section will be use a survey. The ideal survey will be a cross-sectional design
distributed around the Orlando area using various social media sites. The survey will be divided
into sections. The first section will ask about ideologies on poverty. The next set of questions will
refer to knowledge of unintended consequences of city growth. The last set of questions refer to
sports and ideas of living in what David Whitson and Donald Macintosh refer to as a "World-

Bates |9
class city" (1996). The survey will end with an option to be contacted for a in-depth interview.
The interview will be a phenomenology study. The survey allows answers to be analyzed
statistically. The phenomenology study allows a participant to be asked an open-ended question
such as "what do you believe are the benefits of Orlando building the OSS?". He/she can answer
while the interviewer takes notes. The researcher will eventually read over all the responses and
look for emergent themes. After the interviewing process, all contact information leading to the
participant will be destroyed to maintain anonymity. This will be a mixed mode between
analyzing statistical responses from secondary data, and the survey; as wall as a phenomenology
study that will examine themes throughout the interviews.
The final section of the research is a content analysis. This is similar to the interview
section in the sense that it looks for themes. As opposed to asking various people questions, a
content analysis turns to the media for the information. I will take articles written on the web, by
various new papers, and various news magazines and look for themes. Each story may be biased,
however, each article will have themes that run parallel with each other.
This study requires a thorough research design. This is because the study examines a
current event in a particular city in Orlando. The research will allow a conclusion to be made
assessing the citizens views of if Orlando needs another stadium. It will focus on a specific area,
but will try to include all locals in the study. The news reports say that the people in Paramour do
not want the stadium. This is clearly the NIMBY argument. What about the city as a whole?
Does a city that already has symbols of wealth and prestige need more? Based on the guidelines
other cities have put into place, does Orlando meet all the demographic needs to have a
successful soccer stadium? The research is not to pose a solution to the negative consequences of
building, but to ask if the stadium is the best option for growth in Orlando.

B a t e s | 10
After this is completed, Orlando will be compared with other cities who have built a
stadium as a status symbol. Some cities have been successful using stadiums as assets to the
growth machine. Many other cities have not been successful in their attempt to build a stadium.
This article will analyze the results of this study and compare it with what past researchers
have found as the themes of success when referring to stadiums that have been built.
As the research continues, the questions this study seeks to answer may transform. The questions
hypothesizes will be developed further as the survey, interview, and content analysis are
developed. At this point, the research will examine the following hypothesizes:
(IV- independent variable, DV dependent variable)
H1

IV-Orlando has the characteristics to have a successful stadium

DV- The predicted success of the stadium
Ho= Orlando will benefit from the soccer stadium.
Ha= Orlando will not benefit from the soccer stadium.

H2

IV- Citizens ideas on the soccer stadium.

DV- If the citizens want the soccer stadium.
Ho= The majority of citizens do not want a soccer stadium.
Ha= The majority of citizens do want a soccer stadium.

H3

IV- Location of the stadium.

DV- People want the stadium, but in a different area of the city.
Ho= The majority of people do not want the soccer stadium.
Ha= The majority of people want the soccer stadium but disagree on the location.

H4

IV- Respondents age

DV- Their views on the new stadium
Ho= The people who want the stadium will be adults aged 22 and older.
Ha= The people who want the stadium will be aged 21 and younger.

H5

IV-Success of other cities

DV- Infrastructure and characteristics of Orlando
Ho= Orlando has the characteristics to have a successful stadium.
Ha= Orlando does not have the characteristics to have a successful stadium.

The research will use SPSS and test the hypothesizes. A correlation test will examine if there is a
correlation between variables, and if needed, the variables will be recoded and a regression test

B a t e s | 11
will be performed. This will allow for further examination of a negative or positive relationship
between variables. The regression test will also tell how strong the relationship is.

Conclusion
This research will try to make the argument that the new soccer stadium is conspicuous
consumption. It will use various ideas from Moloch and after the research, try to make a
conclusion of how much of a choice the city had when offered a soccer stadium. The research
will examine potential unintended consequences that may accompany this type of growth. The
paper will determine if the location is the best location for the city's needs. It will examine how
Orlando plans to finance the stadium and what the perceived belief is around the community.
The study will examine all these variables and present the information being as objective as
possible.

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