With the 2015 MLB All-Star Game festivities set to blast off tonight at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, OH, you may be asking yourself what exactly makes a city an “All Star” for sports fans? For some, living in a city that has great sports teams means fun days out, nights at a bar to cheer on one’s favorite team, or an excuse to wear a jersey to work. Since 1992 when Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore opened, conventional wisdom has held that great stadiums make good neighbors, driving economic development and transforming run-down cities into bright, shining meccas for shopping, socializing, and living as well as rooting.

While economic data on the actual impact of stadiums on urban neighborhoods is spotty, a number of economists, like Andrew Zimbalist at Smith College, think that redeveloped cities can include sports facilities as part of plans to bring people back into city life.