Comments for If You Build It, Then So What?

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Produced by Richard Paul

Other pieces by Richard Paul

Summary: Boosters of sports stadiums tell us that stadiums are economic development engines. Are they?
 

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Review of If You Build It, Then So What?

Sports stadium rant. It's kind of funny though. It's Frank DeFord with a sense of humor and a degree in Journalism! A factual news piece, punctuated by sound effects, interviews, and good natured banter. Informational and ultimately listenable. Technically about the concept of building sports stadiums in cities around the country. Do they really make sense? Good use of a multitude of movie clips and and music. Long music tail to fade at end of piece.

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Review of If You Build It, Then So What?

Interesting analysis of cities dropping a bunch of money into a new stadium, big and small. This is obviously done with a slant on "fun" -- there is good information, but it's presentation is not the straight-forward "here are the facts," then "here are some voices of people with professional sounding titles." The producer plays with the information presentation (but, not the facts), presenting with flair the connections he'd put together. Just about any city is going through a new public works entertainment project at any given time, and there is little dated or geographic information in this piece (short references to the new-to-2005 Washington Nationals baseball club and "hometown" meaning D.C.), so it could be used nationally or locally fairly easily. I personally would love to hear many, many more producers create pieces with an eye on the fun, like this. I liked best that it was sportive, but not in the normal, stodgy PR way, like people who can't possible know how to have fun trying too hard. The concepts flowed easily and were fun to listen to.