I used to be vocally anti-stadium. I went to the public hearings during the Nationals Park building in DC to demonstrate against it. I was appalled at the liberal and ugly use of eminent domain to take land from people and hand it to sports billionaires for under market rate. The entire thing was massively over-budget and loaded with graft and corruption. The damn thing is like a monument to political crime.

But I noticed something later. When it was done it gave people a sense of community that they might otherwise not have. The players, owners, and financiers were all out-of-towners, but they still daily talked of how "their" team was doing. Even if they didn't make many games, it functioned as a kind of virtual center.

This was familiar. The stadium is a modern medieval cathedral. Its a church.