I feel like the reason cities court sports teams to their possible economic detriment is due to the selfishness of the city leaders. Who wouldn't want to be mayor of a city with the Super Bowl?
That part of New Jersey is an exception -- it's a swampy place that was nowhereville until the 60s, when the advent of containerization pushed most of the shipping traffic from the Port of NY/NJ to NJ.
Between people and companies fleeing the high costs of New York, enough money flowed in to build stadiums, elevated highways and buildings in the swamp. It's a regional thing, nobody even knows who the mayor of east Rutherford is.
